Lectures  and  Orations  by- 
Henry  Ward  Beecher 


By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 


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HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 
A  Study  of  His  Life  and  Influence 

LECTURES  AND  ORATIONS  BY  HENRY  WARD 

BEECHER 
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Lectures  and  Orations 
By  Henry  Ward  Beecher 


Edited  by 

NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS 


NEW  YORK       CHICAGO       TORONTO 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

LONDON       AND       EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1913.  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


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Contents 

FOREWORD  BY  NEWELL  DWIGHT 
HILLIS 5 

I.  PURITANISM        .        .        .        .11 

II.  THE  WASTES  AND   BURDENS  OF 

SOCIETY      ....      43 

III.  THE    REIGN    OF    THE   COMMON 

PEOPLE       ....      94 

IV.  ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY  .  .     128 

V.  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING  .     157 

VI.  CHARLES  SUMNER       .        .  .183 

VII.  WENDELL  PHILLIPS    .        .  .    208 

VIII.  EULOGY  ON  GRANT     .        .  .234 

IX.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN     .        .  .     263 

APPENDIX 

(a)  Patriotism  Above  Party       .         .     284 

(b)  The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner       .     312 

INDEX 325 


292 


Foreword 

FOR  more  than  forty  years  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  was  one  of  the  two  or  three 
most  conspicuous  figures  in  American  life. 
During  all  these  years  he  divided  honours 
with  the  man  who  happened  to  be  President 
and  the  occasional  banker,  inventor,  author  or 
statesman  who  for  the  hour  stood  in  the  lime 
light.  More  men  heard  Mr.  Beecher  preach 
and  lecture  than  any  other  American  speaker. 
More  people  read  what  Mr.  Beecher  wrote 
than  any  other  writer.  More  people  knew 
Mr.  Beecher  than  any  other  man  upon  our 
streets  or  cars.  He  left  behind  more  than 
forty  volumes,  including  sermons,  patriotic 
addresses,  essays,  theology,  philosophy,  with 
studies  of  travel,  nature  and  art.  He  was 
successful  as  preacher,  lecturer,  editor,  essay 
ist,  and  statesman.  Not  once  in  a  thousand 
years  does  a  man  appear  in  the  world  of 
whom  we  can  say  as  was  said  of  Theseus, 
"  Whether  he  ran,  or  whether  he  walked,  or 
whether  he  stood,  he  conquered." 

Popularity  is  like  the  tides  of  the  sea ;  it 
5 


Foreword 

rises  and  falls.  The  influence  of  a  truly  good 
and  great  man  is  like  the  mountains  and  the 
stars  ;  it  stands  fast  forever.  From  his  youth 
the  pilgrim  host  looked  to  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  as  to  the  Moses  who  was  to  lead 
them  out  of  the  wilderness  into  the  promised 
land.  Multitudes  of  our  people  never  made 
up  their  minds  on  any  great  question  of  re 
ligion,  politics  or  social  reform,  until  first  of 
all  they  had  taken  their  bearings  from  Beech- 
er's  thinking.  All  this  is  the  more  wonderful 
when  we  remember  that  Beecher  never  had 
the  assistance  of  high  office.  Grant's  arm  was 
strengthened  by  the  might  of  a  half  million 
men  standing  behind  him.  The  office  of  the 
Presidency  lent  weight  to  Lincoln's  words. 
The  history  of  the  Republic  holds  the  names 
of  at  least  ten  Presidents  who  through  some 
compromise  or  happy  accident  were  elevated 
to  the  White  House.  But  yesterday  this 
private  citizen  was  not  able  to  make  his  voice 
heard  far  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  town  ; 
to-day  as  President  this  same  man's  voice  may 
ring  to  the  borders  of  the  Rio  Grande  and  the 
Oregon.  But  by  sheer  weight  of  personal 
manhood  Beecher  maintained  an  influence  as 
great  as  that  exerted  by  other  men  as  senators 
or  Presidents. 

6 


Foreword 

Among  the  secrets  of  the  power  of  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  we  shall  find  one  in  his  splendid 
body  and  marvellous  health.  He  was,  per 
haps,  the  finest  animal  and  the  best  illustra 
tion  of  a  perfect  body  as  the  instrument  of 
fine  thinking  afforded  by  his  generation. 
From  his  fathers  also  he  had  the  gift  of 
unique  common  sense  that  made  him  reason 
able,  fair,  and  sane.  He  had  the  rare  gift  of 
intellectual  sympathy,  so  that  instinctively  he 
put  himself  in  the  other  man's  place.  He  was 
our  Nineteenth  Century  illustration  also  of 
John  Bunyan's  Great- Heart,  using  his  genius 
as  a  shield  above  the  weak  and  oppressed. 
He  had  the  most  extraordinary  gift  of  lan 
guage,  choosing  words  with  a  certain  exquisite 
sense  of  the  inevitable.  He  had  reverence  for 
the  truth,  justice  towards  men,  love  towards 
God  ;  he  had  moral  earnestness,  wit,  humour, 
gentleness,  courage, — and  by  his  combination 
of  gifts  he  captured  the  admiration  of  the 
American  people.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  Beecher  changed  the  thinking  of  our 
people  as  to  their  idea  of  God,  the  Bible,  and 
the  genius  of  Christianity.  He  was  the  first 
man  to  take  the  sting  out  of  the  early  theories 
of  Evolution,  and  who  found  in  science  a  real 
aid  to  religion.  Indeed,  the  very  atmosphere 
7 


Foreword 

of  the  churches  of  our  land  has  been  differ 
ent  because  Henry  Ward  Beecher  lived  and 
wrought. 

At  a  critical  hour  during  the  Civil  War, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  pleaded  the  cause  of  the 
Republic  before  the  English  people.  Some 
time  during  the  autumn  of  1863,  England 
practically  entered  into  a  compact  with  France 
to  recognize  the  Southern  Confederacy  on 
January  I,  1864.  Two  influences  brought 
this  about.  On  the  one  hand,  the  English 
patrician,  loving  the  throne  and  the  monarchy, 
wished  the  Republic  to  go  to  pieces.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  English  cotton  spinners,  after 
two  years  of  starvation  because  no  raw  cotton 
could  be  obtained  from  the  South,  had  become 
desperate,  driven  to  crusts,  rags  and  idleness. 
Although  they  manfully  endured  their  dis 
tresses,  believing  in  the  cause  of  free  labour, 
their  condition  lent  excuse  to  the  British  gov 
erning  class  for  favouring  the  South.  Beecher 
was  abroad  in  the  interest  of  his  health  and  at 
the  charges  of  Plymouth  Church.  He  had  no 
commission  from  Abraham  Lincoln  or  his 
country.  Believing  that  the  recognition  of 
the  South  by  England  and  France  might  be 
fatal  to  the  Union,  Beecher  gave  a  series  of 
five  addresses,  beginning  in  Manchester  and 
8 


Foreword 

ending  in  Exeter  Hall,  London.  William 
Taylor  went  away  after  Beecher's  address  in 
Liverpool  to  say,  "  No  such  eloquence  has 
been  heard  in  the  world  since  Demosthenes 
pleaded  the  cause  of  Athens  against  King 
Philip."  After  reading  those  speeches  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  told  his  cabinet  that  if  the  war 
was  ever  fought  to  a  successful  issue,  there 
would  be  but  one  man  to  lift  the  flag  at  Fort 
Sumter,  for  without  Beecher  in  England  there 
might  have  been  no  flag  to  raise. 

The  later  years  of  Beecher's  life  brought 
other  crises  to  his  country.  In  the  name  of 
patriotism  and  education,  family  life  and  social 
reform,  he  delivered  many  orations  and  lec 
tures.  In  the  interest  of  multitudes  who  never 
had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  such  transient 
reports  of  them  as  may  have  been  accessible 
at  the  time,  some  of  these  addresses  of  the 
great  preacher  have  been  brought  together  in 
this  more  permanent  form. 

NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS. 

The  oration  on  Lincoln  is  given  as  re 
ported  in  Beecher's  "Patriotic  Addresses 
in  America  and  England,  1850-1876, '*  by 
permission  of  Mr.  Wm.  C.  Beecher,  as 
representative  of  the  owners  of  the  copy 
right.  That  book  offers,  in  the  great 
orator's  own  words,  the  most  complete 
view  of  his  political  career. 


I 

PURITANISM1 

IN  one  of  the  mightiest  battles  of  the  Span 
ish  Peninsula,  Napier,  I  think  it  is,  who 
records  that  a  truce  was  sounded  at  noon,  that 
the  war  of  artillery  ceased,  the  smoke  cleared 
away,  and  the  men,  who  but  an  hour  before 
had  been  whirling  like  storms  upon  each 
other  in  headlong  charges,  came  down  to  a 
brook  which  divided  the  ground,  to  quench 
their  thirst,  and  reached  forth  friendly  hands 
and  exchanged  kind  greetings  across  it.  To 
night,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  there  is  a  truce 
around  the  Plymouth  Rock.  We  seize  this 
charmed  hour  to  hush  every  conflict,  to  let  the 
whirl  of  business  run  out  to  stillness,  to  quench 
the  fires  of  party.  The  most  earnest  men  will 
pause  to-night,  and  from  opposite  sides  look 
kindly  at  each  other.  We  reach  hands  across 
the  Plymouth  Stone,  and  greet  each  other. 
Peace  be  with  you  !  To  be  sure  it  is  the  eve 

1  Delivered  first  in  Philadelphia,  December  21,  1860,  be 
fore  the  New  England  Society,  and  substantially  repeated 
often  as  a  lecture. 

II 


Lectures  and  Orations 

of  the  22d,  but  let  us  gently  abolish  twelve 
hours,  and  decree  this  to  be  the  ever-memo 
rable  date  of  New  England  ! 

Even  in  Old  England  there  are  those  who 
mark  the  22d  of  December,  for  the  children 
of  the  Pilgrims  are  not  all  upon  this  side  of 
the  ocean.  As  the  sun  leaves  those  shores 
and  wheels  hitherward,  every  hour  awakes  in 
ranks  the  States  that  celebrate  that  memo 
rable  date.  Where  there  is  a  drop  of  New 
England  blood  there  will  be  holy  thoughts  and 
grateful  memories  to-night — and  where  is  there 
not  New  England  blood  ?  Is  there  a  State  of 
the  glorious  thirty-three  that  is  unenriched  by 
it?  Her  ingenious  mechanics  work  in  every 
nook  upon  the  Continent.  Her  gentle  school 
mistresses  brood  in  schools  along  every  league 
from  Lake  to  Gulf — or,  exalted  to  a  higher 
sphere,  preside  over  their  own  school,  where 
husband  is  assistant  usher,  and  children  pupils. 
When  a  railroad  needs  method,  when  a  bank 
needs  keen  sagacity,  when  iron  or  stone,  wood 
or  clay,  are  to  be  moulded,  or  water  called 
from  waste  to  usefulness,  or  steam  subdued  to 
industry — there  you  shall  find  the  universal 
Yankee.  Prolific  stock  !  Wonderful  hive  ! 
New  England  swarms  forever,  but  it  never 
runs  empty.  And  no  man  born  in  New  Eng- 
12 


Puritanism 

land  ever  forgets  his  mother,  though  her  breast 
was  granite,  and  her  kiss  frost. 

To-night,  then,  in  every  State  of  this  Union, 
there  will  be  a  time  for  grateful  retrospection. 
Maine,  amid  her  snows,  will  rehearse  the  story 
that  never  wears  out  by  telling.  New  Hamp 
shire,  from  amid  her  hills  and  mountains,  will 
send  back  a  grateful  remembrance  to  the  past, 
and  an  "  All  hail !  "  to  the  future.  Vermont, 
her  green  hills  now  tucked  up  in  white  for 
their  winter's  sleep,  will  recount  to  her  children 
the  story  of  the  wintry  day  and  the  welcome- 
less  landing.  Connecticut,  small  but  comely, 
and  Rhode  Island,  smaller  but  yet  fair,  shall 
stop  all  their  machineries,  and  bare  the  head 
in  the  sacred  memories  of  this  hour.  Let  Mas 
sachusetts  lead  this  throng,  to  whose  shores 
came  the  Pilgrims.  She  guards  the  Rock,  and 
a  hundred  tongues  to-night  eloquently  speak 
its  meaning. 

Metropolitan  New  York  admits  to  her  cal 
endar  of  saints  as  many  as  the  world  can  find, 
so  that  they  do  not  come  dry-lipped;  and 
while  in  due  sequence  she  spreads  a  wondrous 
cheer  on  hospitable  tables  for  the  Knicker 
bocker  and  for  the  Gaul,  for  Santa  Claus,  for 
St.  George  and  St.  Patrick — thirsty  saints  all — 
and  for  St.  Burns,  elected  to  the  saintship  by 
13 


Lectures  and  Orations 

a  thirst  equal  to  any,  she  hails  the  coming  of 
the  Pilgrim,  mumbles  her  parched  corn,  con 
scientiously  sips  the  water  fervid  with  ices,  re 
warding  afterwards  her  exemplary  temperance 
with  fare  that  would  have  appalled  a  Puritan, 
albeit  he  was  a  man  not  averse  to  generous 
diet. 

So  long  as  the  trailing  arbutus — true  May 
flower — grows  upon  the  hills  of  New  Jersey, 
she  shall  yield  a  welcome  to  this  day ;  for  many 
of  her  noblest  cradles  to-night  rock  the  blood 
of  the  Puritan.  And  the  great  heart  of  Penn 
sylvania,  to-night,  true  to  its  generous  im 
pulses,  and  confessing  how  many  that  she  loves 
and  honours  come  from  the'  Puritan  land- 
opens  to  hail  and  bless  the  memory  of  the  Pil 
grims.  Delaware  and  Maryland,  States  that, 
by  the  side  of  their  neighbours,  seem  like  punc 
tuation  points,  or  particles,  in  the  sentence  that 
spells  Union  and  Liberty — not  disjunctive  par 
ticles,  but  inseparable  conjunctions,  binding 
together  the  glorious  eloquence  of  confederated 
States  !  And  Virginia,  what  shall  she  say,  to 
night  ?  Uncover  the  head  !  Draw  near  with 
me,  that  I  may  ask — not  those  who  forget,  but 
those  who  remember  Washington.  Hark ! 
To-night  Mount  Vernon  sends  a  greeting  of 
holy  reverence  to  Plymouth  Rock !  And 
14 


Puritanism 

sweeping  westward,  every  State — Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  Michigan  and  Indiana,  Illinois  and 
Missouri,  Tennessee  and  Wisconsin,  Iowa  and 
Kansas — shall  send  patriotic  thoughts  to  the 
ancestral  shrine,  for  every  one  of  them  has 
New  England  blood  !  Yea,  across  the  plains, 
along  the  mountain  slope,  in  the  cabins  of  the 
wearied  miner,  all  down  the  coasts  of  Cali 
fornia  and  Oregon,  there  shall  be  a  grateful 
recognition  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  and  from 
the  gigantic  evergreens  of  Calaveras  goes  a 
greeting  to  the  pine  trees  of  all  New  England. 

Nor  shall  the  wide  compact  of  remembrance 
lose  one  State  along  the  Gulf  to-night — they 
shall  drop  the  hand  and  cool  the  tongue,  and 
from  a  thousand  spots  truce  shall  sound,  and 
men  come  down  to  this  peaceful  memory  that 
flows  between  us  and  exchange  greetings. 

By  the  God  of  the  Pilgrims,  I  say  to  the 
North,  give  up ;  to  the  South,  keep  not  back, 
but  bring  my  sons  from  afar  and  my  daughters 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  reverence  the 
memory  of  the  Pilgrims  !  Let  the  Savannah 
murmur  it;  let  the  Mississippi  sound  it;  let 
the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  bear  the  chorus 
to  the  sea;  then  let  the  Atlantic  speak  and 
the  Pacific  answer — deep  calling  unto  deep. 

Two  hundred  and  forty  years  ago !  Who 
15 


Lectures  and  Orations 

will  journey  with  me  back  to  that  period? 
Of  how  much  must  we  divest  ourselves  before 
we  can  draw  near  to  that  eventful  day,  when 
the  sea  washed  upon  the  shores  of  Plymouth 
the  seed  of  states  ?  You  may  not  carry  with 
you  the  vision  of  fruitful  valleys — of  popu 
lous  cities,  of  fields  of  grain  and  grass.  Re 
store  if  you  can,  in  imagination,  the  solitude 
of  the  Continent!  Put  a  few  Spaniards  in 
Florida,  a  few  Englishmen  at  Jamestown,  a 
few  stragglers  in  Canada.  Give  back  the 
whole  continent  to  the  Aboriginal  Indian. 
Light  his  fire  along  the  streams,  and  mark 
his  hunting  path  again  along  the  slopes  of  the 
Alleghany !  Put  out  every  lighthouse  upon 
the  coast,  stop  every  mill,  burn  every  ship. 
Nay,  if  you  would  be  real  pilgrims,  in  search 
of  the  Primitive  Pilgrims,  you  must  abolish 
the  annals  of  history,  cover  up  the  battle-fields 
of  the  Revolution,  the  Yorktown,  the  Bunker 
Hill,  the  Camp  at  Valley  Forge.  You  must 
plant  the  forest  where  your  noble  Continental 
State  House  now  is,  and  silence  that  bell  now 
consecrated  to  Liberty,  but  which  then  lay 
undug  in  the  ores  of  the  earth.  You  must 
roll  back  the  tide  of  civilization,  efface  every 
railway,  fill  every  canal,  annihilate  the  steam 
engine,  give  back  the  telegraph  wire  to  its 
16 


Puritanism 

mine,  and  its  subtle  fluid  to  the  vagrant  stormy 
clouds,  restore  to  science  all  those  secrets  of 
chemistry  which  now  enrich  the  manufactories 
of  the  world ;  restore  to  nature  the  secrets  of 
fertility ;  go  back  to  the  plough  and  imple 
ments  of  the  olden  time,  and  let  steam  ploughs 
and  reapers  retreat  to  their  old  hiding-places  ; 
destroy  natural  pity,  and  let  birds  fly  back  to 
unknown  haunts,  fish  sink  into  the  deep  again, 
and  the  astronomer  forget  his  way,  and  his 
path  be  rubbed  out.  Sink  your  yachts,  ob 
literate  your  main  and  river  steamers,  scuttle 
your  merchantmen  and  bird-rivalling  clippers, 
and  stand  to  see  the  ill-looking,  clumsy  May 
flower  enter  the  harbour,  a  very  tub  which  a 
Delaware  lighterman  would  scorn. 

Thus,  divesting  the  imagination  of  the  facts 
of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  walk  back  to  our 
fathers  without  seeing  a  schoolhouse  or  a 
church  in  all  the  way ;  without  hearing  a  mill, 
or  the  lowing  of  the  kine  ;  without  one  verdant 
meadow  for  the  scythe,  or  blossoming  field  for 
the  bees ;  without  an  inn  and  without  a  host, 
without  a  road  and  without  steed  or  carriage ; 
without  a  companion  save  the  Indian,  and 
without  a  paper  to  print  your  observations,  or 
a  book  to  record  your  travels  !  In  short,  they 
who  would  see  Plymouth  Rock  to-night  as 
17 


Lectures  and  Orations 

they  saw  it  who  landed  two  hundred  and  forty 
years  ago,  must  disrobe  the  continent  and 
strip  bare  the  age  in  which  he  lives  of  its 
discoveries,  inventions  and  accumulations  of 
knowledge !  And  thus  unapparelled  see  these 
men ! 

But  they,  too,  must  not  stand  forth  in  those 
pictures  which  the  imagination  loves  to  draw, 
full  of  colours,  full  of  symmetries,  full  of  grand 
heroic  traits  !  They  were  men  of  like  pas 
sions  with  ourselves.  Some  were  heroes  and 
some  only  heroic.  Heroes  never  march  in 
battalions !  They  were  beset  with  ignorance 
which  later  ages  have  cleared  away.  They 
were  narrow  where  we  have  grown  broad. 
They  were  intolerant  where  we  have  grown 
liberal.  They  were  rude  and  hard,  while  we 
have  clad  ourselves  with  a  few  graces.  A 
grim  and  firm-faced  band  of  men  were  they, 
who  for  liberty  of  conscience  forsook  home, 
and  stood  firm,  on  a  December  day  upon  the 
winter-locked  shore  of  Plymouth,  without  a 
regret.  How  many  of  us,  with  all  our  boasted 
advances,  could  have  stood  on  that  Rock, 
blossoming  only  with  frost-flowers,  with  old 
England  behind  and  a  howling  wilderness  be 
fore,  and  cast  no  look  backwards,  but  like 
them,  smile  upon  a  welcome  winter  wilderness 
18 


Puritanism 

in  which  there  was  liberty  !  As  sometimes, 
in  a  doubtful  battle,  a  bold  commander  casts 
forward  his  flag  among  the  enemy,  that  his 
followers,  with  new  redoubled  ardour,  may 
strike  forward  to  retake  it  there — so  our  fathers 
cast  forward  their  hearts  upon  the  wilderness, 
and  it  would  be  gloriously  well  if  the  sons 
could  find  indeed  the  heart  of  the  fathers ! 

But  it  is  time  that  we  should  look  to  these 
men,  not  in  their  peaked  hats  and  slashed 
doublets,  not  in  their  clumsy  cloaks  and  an 
tique  costumes,  but  in  the  habiliments  of  their 
souls  !  Let  us  compare  these  men  of  two  hun 
dred  and  forty  years  ago  with  their  own  age, 
and  that  age  with  our  own  ! 

There  seem  to  be  long  winters  in  history  as 
well  as  nature,  out  of  which  spring  suddenly 
leaps ;  whose  growth,  slowly  preparing 
through  many  months,  is  almost  like  en 
chantment.  To-day  snows,  and  to-morrow 
blossoms.  Certain  it  was  that  despotism, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,  had  come  to  its  full 
development,  just  previous  to  the  Reforma 
tion.  The  human  soul  broke  forth  from  pro 
found  darkness  and  captivity,  with  as  sud 
den  a  glory  as  that  which  roused  the  shep 
herds  on  the  plains  of  Bethlehem.  And  the 
hundred  years  preceding  the  Pilgrim  period 
19 


Lectures  and  Orations 

was  one  continuous  outbreak  and  advance  of 
the  human  mind  towards  Liberty !  Scholar 
ship  was  revived.  Printing  was  bringing  the 
democratic  element  to  learning  and  intelli 
gence.  There  was  tumult  in  every  depart 
ment  of  society.  The  world  had  completed 
a  full  season,  and  was  entering  a  new  period. 
No  one  could  then  have  so  said.  A  darkness 
lay  upon  all  men.  In  all  the  one  hundred 
years  in  which  the  Reformation  stands  central 
not  a  prophet  appeared  ! 

The  noble  was  borne  he  knew  not  whither ; 
the  king  felt  himself  swinging  at  the  anchor 
with  an  ever-lengthening  cable ;  scholars  found 
out  truth  as  miners  seek  for  ore,  not  knowing 
whether  it  should  make  sword  or  shield, 
buckler  or  knife,  horse's  shoe  or  nail  for  the 
sanctuary — as  sawyers  rip  the  deal  log, 
thoughtless  whether  it  is  for  the  cradle  or 
for  the  floor  it  rocks  upon ;  for  couch  or  for 
coffin.  Men  at  that  time  were  very  earnest, 
intensely  active,  but  every  one  with  business 
right  on  hand.  Divines  were  searching  for 
truths,  for  immediate  use  against  some  cruel 
error,  some  pestilent  persecuting  dogma.  The 
statesman  was  seizing  a  new  truth,  not  from 
any  foreseen  relation  of  its  system  or  philos 
ophy,  but  because  with  something  he  must 
20 


Puritanism 

defend  himself  against  intolerable  pretensions 
of  power.  Scholars  were  not  men  of  theory, 
weaving  schools  of  modern  days,  who  spin 
over  the  fields  of  learning  with  more  webs 
than  the  sun  shines  upon  in  actual  meadows. 
They  were  living  men — men  who  felt  yokes 
and  burdens,  and  asked  truth  as  knives  to  cut 
the  stringent  burden  off.  Kings  disputed  the 
very  ground  that  men  stood  on,  and  sheer 
necessity  drove  them  to  find  out  a  reason  for 
their  right  to  stand  there.  A  common  danger 
drove  them  to  explore  principles  of  right 
which  should  include  all  men  in  common. 
And  so,  the  forms  of  development — civil  and 
religious  truth — naturally,  and  from  circum 
stances  of  their  origin,  were  towards  the  demo 
cratic  or  universal  good.  Everybody  was 
made  practical  and  wise  by  some  existing 
necessity.  All  thinkers  were  held  down  to 
earth  by  the  earthly  movements.  Men,  like 
hounds,  ran  with  their  heads  low  to  the  ground 
which  they  coursed  over!  And  as  it  was  in 
Europe,  so  it  was  in  England.  As  it  was  of 
the  great  army  of  Reformers,  that  secured  to 
England  her  liberties,  so  it  was  with  those 
who  were  broken  off  the  parent  tree  to  be 
grafted  upon  the  wild  stock  of  a  wilderness. 
Our  fathers  did  not  come  hither  on  a  specu- 

21 


Lectures  and  Orations 

lation  of  philosophy,  of  religion,  or  of  com 
merce.  They  came  simply  to  be  rid  of  op 
pression,  and  to  live  at  peace  with  their  o\vn 
consciences.  They  never  dreamed  of  future 
greatness. 

The  history  of  the  Pilgrims  is  the  proper 
epic  of  humility.  They  did  not  know  their 
own  worth,  or  suspect  their  own  grandeur. 
They  heard  God's  voice  speaking  in  their  age, 
and  they  obeyed  it.  It  was  a  nice  ear  that 
could  hear  it.  It  was  a  pious  soul  that  ac 
cepted  it.  It  was  a  bold  heart  that  could 
obey  it.  No  Moses  was  with  them.  No 
miracle  authenticated  their  moral  convictions. 
No  fire  or  cloud  guided  them.  The  invisible 
truth  was  their  guide  ! 

These  men  were  of  small  account  at  home. 
If  you  will  follow  them  back  to  their  homes, 
you  will  now  and  then  find  a  mansion,  never 
a  castle,  but  almost  always  a  yeoman's  house, 
or  a  labourer's  hovel.  At  home  the  Puritans 
were  weavers,  cobblers,  tinkers,  merchants  and 
mechanics.  Only  their  leaders  were  educated. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  they  reared  up  in 
imagination  any  Promised  Land,  or  that  they 
fed  their  enthusiasm  upon  the  visions  of  an 
ideal  Republic.  There  was  no  Sir  Thomas 
More  among  them,  and  they  had  no  Utopia, 

22 


Puritanism 

There  is  no  evidence  of  great  foresight  or 
foregoing  sagacity  in  statesmanship.  They 
were  men  of  common  sense  in  the  affairs  that 
lay  near  to  them,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that 
they  had  the  poetic  glance  or  the  in-looking 
eye  of  philosophy.  But  what  was  the  state 
of  an  age  in  which  the  genteel  men  were  able 
to  be  only  courtiers,  while  cobblers  and  tinkers 
became  statesmen,  without  knowing  or  pre 
tending  it  ?  This  is  the  lesson,  then ;  that 
firm  faith  in  God,  and  fidelity  to  moral  truth 
in  its  application  to  the  age  in  which  men 
live,  and  to  the  business  that  lies  next  their 
hand,  are  the  powers  by  which  the  greatest 
events  are  brought  to  pass. 

In  taking  away  from  the  Puritan  the  com 
prehensive  glance  that  read  the  whole  scope 
and  future  of  the  principles  which  he  adopted, 
do  we  lower  him  in  the  scale  of  greatness  ? 
If  he  had  seen  the  end  from  the  beginning,  he 
would  have  been  more  than  a  man.  Not  one 
of  all  those  eminent  names  that  acted  in  the 
Reformation  were  consistent  with  the  since- 
discovered  nature  of  the  principles  which  they 
adopted.  They  accepted  the  doctrine  of 
liberty  with  a  local  application.  They  never 
foresaw  the  logical  future.  Luther  and  his 
compeers  vehemently  denounced  the  Protes- 
23 


Lectures  and  Orations 

tant  war,  although  it  was  based  upon  the 
identical  principles  which  led  the  Reformed 
Church  to  separate  from  Rome.  That  liberty 
of  speech  which  the  Protestant  asserted  as  be 
tween  Protestantism  and  Catholicism  was 
denied  by  Luther,  by  Calvin,  by  Knox,  as 
between  different  sects  of  the  Protestant 
body. 

The  fatal  notion  of  Unity  which  the  Romish 
Church  has  for  an  iron  centre  was  carried  by 
the  Protestant  with  the  Reform.  Despotism 
consolidates  ;  Liberty  opens,  diffuses,  relaxes. 
Growth  in  tyrannies  is  only  petrifaction. 
Freedom  develops  as  a  tree  does.  First  is  the 
seed  of  some  pine,  dropped  by  the  hand  of 
frost,  caught  in  the  rift  of  some  rock,  and  let 
down  towards  the  scanty  soil  by  the  melting 
ice.  It  sprouts,  and  no  voice  announces  its 
birth.  It  struggles  for  room.  Its  roots  seek 
for  nourishment  from  pervious  rocks,  and  yet 
it  thrives.  And  as  it  grows,  it  divides  and 
divides  again,  united  in  the  trunk  but  diverse 
in  the  boughs,  until  in  full  stature  it  lifts  up 
ten  thousand  separate  branches,  each  one  with 
liberty,  but  all  of  them  fibral,  back  to  a  common 
root. 

But  the  knowledge  of  the  safety  which  goes 
with  diversity — the  practical  knowledge  of  it 
24 


Puritanism 

— belonged  to  a  later  period.  And  since  it 
existed  nowhere  else,  how  should  we  demand 
it  among  the  Puritans  ?  Free  speech  with 
them  was  a  self-defensory  claim,  and  not  a 
universal  principle.  Every  man  might  revile 
the  Pope — but  the  Quakers  were  forbid  to 
revile  the  Protestant.  That  is  as  far  as  their 
experiment  went.  They  believed  in  free 
speech,  but  beyond  their  own  experience 
they  dreaded  it.  It  was  reserved  for  their 
children  to  carry  out  to  its  full  proportions 
this  fundamental  right  of  liberty. 

It  is  the  joy  and  glory  of  our  age  that  this 
benign  principle — liberty  of  the  tongue — has 
dropped  its  blossoms  upon  our  land,  and  that 
our  hands  are  full  of  its  fruits.  For  what  are 
free  ports,  in  and  out  of  which  ships  of  all 
nations  may  go,  compared  to  the  free  mouth, 
which  is  the  soul's  port !  And  what  is  all  the 
merchandise  of  gold  and  silver,  of  silks  and 
spice,  compared  with  the  commerce  of  wis 
dom  !  Within,  invisible,  the  all-skillful  soul 
fashions  her  precious  wares,  weaves  divine 
truths  into  governments  for  the  nations,  forges 
implements  for  sacred  warfare,  executes  all 
conceits  of  beauty  and  of  grace,  and  to  the 
tongue  she  commits  her  treasures,  as  to  a  free 
and  universal  merchantman,  that  runs  through 
25 


Lectures  and  Orations 

every  latitude,  and  with  endless  rounds  of 
benefaction  enriches  the  globe ! 

They  planted  the  seed ;  we  gather  the  fruit. 
Now,  the  civilized  world  is  yielding  to  a  Puri 
tan  doctrine.  Free  speech  is  to  the  soul  what 
free  air  is  to  the  body.  To  deny  or  suppress 
it  is  to  take  sides  with  deceit  and  wickedness. 
No  righteous  cause  suffers  by  open  search. 
No  cause  dreads  a  Free  Press  unless  it  has 
reason  for  dreading  it.  There  is  always  a  lie 
or  wrong  when  a  probing  tongue  makes  men 
wince ;  and  he  that  shuts  a  free  man's  mouth 
would,  if  he  had  an  opportunity,  temptation 
and  impunity,  shut  the  prison  door  upon  him. 
To  shut  up  the  tongue  in  his  mouth  is  a  worse 
imprisonment  than  to  shut  his  body  in  a 
dungeon.  But  the  Puritan  was  not  omniscient. 
He  could  not  borrow  the  Divine  power  of 
seeing  the  end  from  the  beginning.  Nor 
should  we  blame  him  for  knowing  only  those 
stars  which  rose  in  his  hemisphere. 

Let  us  see,  now,  what  was  the  Puritan's 
Creed. 

I.  The  first  grand  battle  of  the  Puritan 
was  continental,  and  in  behalf  of  the  right  of 
every  man  to  his  own  God.  God  is  father, 
man  is  child.  Religion  is  liberty.  No  man 
but  the  father  shall  tell  the  child  what  he  may 
26 


Puritanism 

do  at  home.  The  Church  and  the  priests  are 
helps,  not  masters.  Ordinances  are  staffs,  not 
sceptres.  God  gave  to  every  man  a  telescope, 
through  which  he  might  see  the  eternal  world 
and  the  invisible  God.  The  cunning  priest 
slipped  in  place  of  it  a  kaleidoscope,  filled 
with  bits  of  painted  glass,  beads  and  tinsel 
metals,  and  every  turn  gave  fantastic  figures 
and  strange  monkish  devices,  rarely  fine  to  the 
superstitious,  but  disgusting  to  intelligent  faith. 

The  first  contest  was  simply  this :  Is  the 
Bible  a  sufficient  guide  to  God  ?  Is  the  reason 
a  sufficient  guide  through  the  Bible  ?  Are  an 
honest  soul  and  virtuous  heart  sufficient  guides 
for  the  reason  ? 

Next,  the  magistrate  sought  to  usurp  the 
usurpation  of  the  priest.  King  and  Parlia 
ment  undertook  to  direct  the  religious  duties 
and  worship  of  the  subject.  Against  this  in 
trusion  came  the  soul's  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  and,  in  England,  this  separation 
between  Puritan  and  Churchman. 

The  last  step  taken  into  perfect  liberty  was 
that  taken  by  the  Independent,  whose  cham 
pion  was  Harry  Vane,  that  one's  own  sect 
may  not  molest  his  free  conscience. 

That  which  the  priest  may  not  do  the  king 
must  not.  What  the  king  must  not  do  one's 
27 


Lectures  and  Orations 

own  neighbours  and  fellow  citizens  shall  not. 
And  here  at  length  the  Puritan  emerged 
from  the  cave  of  darkness  and  into  the  hemi 
sphere  of  light  and  liberty.  It  was  the  spec 
tacle  of  the  human  soul  claiming  its  birth 
right,  asserting  its  sonship,  inspired  by  full 
faith  of  its  immortality. 

II.  But  whatever  gives  strength  to  the  soul 
for  one  purpose  gives  it  universal  growth. 
The  rights  of  the  soul  against  ecclesiastical 
domination  could  not  fail  to  result  in  the 
same  conflict  with  the  civil  magistracy.  The 
logic  that  took  the  tiara  from  the  pope's  head 
removed  the  crown  from  the  king.  The  Puri 
tan  shrank  for  a  long  time  from  consistency. 
They  dared  not  follow  their  own  principles. 
They  strove  to  hold  back.  Like  men  who 
begin  to  explore  some  unknown  river  in  a 
new  land,  that  grew  deeper  and  deeper  at 
every  league,  until,  like  the  Amazon,  it  seemed 
itself  a  sea,  long  before  it  reached  the  ocean, 
so  were  the  Puritans  upon  that  stream — the 
Liberty  of  the  Individual !  It  was  not  until 
they  had  got  out  entirely  from  the  shadow  of 
the  Cathedral  that  they  could  make  straight 
lines  in  religion,  and  only  when  they  left  be 
yond  the  seas  the  whole  fabric  of  monarchy 
that  they  gave  consistency  and  symmetry  to 
28 


Puritanism 

their  civil  governments.  Before,  the  prem 
ises  had  been  Government, — from  which  they 
strove  to  recover  the  rights  of  the  people. 
In  the  wilderness  of  New  England,  the  syllo 
gism  was  reversed  and  the  premise  was  the 
People — and  the  inference  a  government. 

Only  give  the  whole  of  a  man  to  himself, 
and  he  is  made  to  be  prudent,  virtuous, 
orderly,  self-governing.  This  is  the  molecule, 
the  atomic  cell  of  Puritanism.  Men  need 
governments  of  restraint,  just  in  proportion 
to  the  degree  in  which  they  are  not  developed 
and  free.  As  the  individual  becomes  edu 
cated  and  strong  in  his  whole  nature,  moral 
and  intellectual,  he  needs  no  government.  For 
God  made  the  human  soul  sufficient  for  all  its 
own  exigencies.  It  is  a  perfect  state.  It  is 
competent  to  entire  sovereignty. 

The  Puritan  was  a  man  thoroughly  alive  to 
liberty.  Nor  can  he  be  understood  or  revered 
by  any  who  do  not  believe  as  he  did,  that  true 
manhood  and  Christian  liberty  were  identical. 
The  first  effect  of  Christianity  upon  the  world 
was  monarchical  and  not  democratic.  It  gave 
power  to  the  intellect,  and  purity  to  the  moral 
nature.  But  these  were  exerted  in  the  direc 
tion  of  Government.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
there  was  in  the  world  but  one  great  interest 
29 


Lectures  and  Orations 

— Government.  There  was  nothing  else  so 
divine,  so  worshipped.  God  was  supposed  to 
be  revealed  chiefly  by  Government.  The  world 
of  ideas  was  pervaded  with  the  idea  of  Gov 
ernment — Government — Government !  Of  the 
one  hundred  million  people  of  Europe,  God 
was  supposed  to  think  well  only  of  about 
t\venty  thousand.  The  rest  were  used  for  the 
benefit  of  these. 

Now  in  1620,  how  stood  the  Puritan  in  com 
parison  with  the  world  ?  Just  as  the  Primi 
tive  Christians  had  stood  1,600  years  before. 
[At  this  point  Mr.  Beecher  proceeded  to  con 
sider  at  great  length  and  with  equal  felicity, 
first,  the  relative  conditions  of  Christianity  and 
Idolatry,  and  second,  the  relative  conditions  of 
the  Puritan  and  his  notions  of  individual  rights 
and  monarchy  with  rights  of  Government. 
He  then  proceeded.] 

The  Puritan  is  pronounced  vulgar.  But  by 
whom?  Not  by  men  who  work.  Not  by 
men  whose  worth  comes  by  character  rather 
than  station.  He  was  the  prophet  of  the  com 
mon  people,  and  was  not  ashamed  to  call  them 
brethren.  Why  should  the  servant  be  more 
than  the  master?  The  Messiah  was  scorned 
as  the  son  of  a  carpenter,  who  had  never  learned 
letters. 

30 


Puritanism 

The  Puritan  is  charged  with  a  frivolous  zeal 
against  trifles — robes  and  linen  vestments. 
But  were  they  trifles  ?  Had  they  not  mean 
ing?  It  is  in  the  power  of  association  to  print 
more  indelibly  than  types  or  the  graver's  tool. 
Not  what  the  loom  made ;  it  was  not  the  linen, 
but  what  the  priest  made  it.  It  stood  for 
ideas.  The  homeliest  peg  that  was  ever  driven 
into  the  wall  may  hold  up  the  warrior's  armour, 
or  the  king's  robe.  And  days,  trees,  places, 
garments,  costumes  may  be  nails  on  which  the 
heart  hangs  precious  memories,  or  the  imagina 
tion  wondrous  superstitions,  or  the  faith  earnest 
beliefs.  And  the  significance  of  any  symbol 
or  ceremony  is  to  be  looked  for,  not  in  its  in 
trinsic  worth,  but  in  the  associations  which  it 
carries  to  the  popular  mind.  What  is  a  wed 
ding-ring  but  a  few  pennyweights  of  gold? 
Yet  that  little  circle  holds  more  to  the  wearer's 
imagination  than  the  horizon  of  the  earth  !  A 
king's  crown  is  but  a  rim  of  gold.  Yet  who 
can  estimate  the  meaning  of  that  word  in  the 
world's  history?  It  signifies  law,  authority, 
obedience,  the  State,  the  world's  sovereignty. 
The  gold  band  on  the  king's  head  may  be  an 
iron  shackle  on  the  Commonwealth.  A  throne 
is  but  a  clumsy  chair,  but  that  chair  is  symbol 
of  all  that  men  hold  most  august  in  authority 


Lectures  and  Orations 

and  worshipful  in  earthly  reverence.  And  in 
the  times  of  the  Puritans  a  robe  was  more 
than  a  robe,  and  a  linen  surplice  more  than  a 
garment.  They  carried  with  them  the  priest, 
the  altar  and  the  church  to  which  they  be 
longed.  The  Puritans  cared  little  for  the 
cloth,  but  much  for  the  ideas  which  it  sym 
bolized. 

They  are  charged  with  ascetic  prejudices, 
and  hatred  of  innocent  amusements.  But  what 
are  innocent  amusements  in  a  tyrant's  hands  ? 
Shall  a  king  defraud  his  people  of  political 
privileges  and  pay  them  in  games  and  dances  ? 
If  they  would  not  question  magistrate  or  priest 
they  might  have  holidays,  and  masks,  and  bear 
baitings.  What  despot  would  not  be  glad  to 
furnish  amusements,  if,  for  such  an  equivalent, 
the  people  would  be  content  under  all  his 
oppressions  ?  To-day,  he  of  Gaeta  would  let 
his  people  dance  if  they  would  consent  not  to 
vote.  He  would  pay  for  pipe  and  lute,  if  they 
would  leave  him  throne  and  sceptre.  But  the 
sturdy  sense  of  the  Puritan  despised  the  bribe, 
and  cast  it  under  foot.  Revels  and  dances 
seemed  to  him  but  flowers  upon  the  corpse  of 
Liberty. 

They  are  charged  with  indifference  to  beauty, 
and  wanton  desecration  of  art.  But  what  was 
32 


Puritanism 

the  art  which  they  beheld  ?  Not  harmonious 
lines  and  wealth  of  colour.  Art  is  language. 
It  came  to  them  speaking  all  the  abominable 
doctrines  of  oppression.  The  more  beautiful, 
the  more  dangerous.  It  was  a  siren.  Its 
beauty  was  a  lure.  Did  not  the  Puritans  tread 
in  the  very  steps  of  the  primitive  Christian  ? 
Was  not  Art,  in  the  early  day,  but  heathenism 
in  its  most  potent  and  attractive  form  ?  The 
legend  might  be  forgotten  ;  the  perilous  mythol 
ogy,  let  alone  by  one  generation,  would  perish  : 
but  art  stood  aloft ;  gleaming  in  the  tempest, 
radiant  from  thousands  of  pictures,  silently  fas 
cinating  and  poisoning  the  soul  through  its 
most  potent  faculty — the  imagination  !  And 
when  the  early  Christian  turned  away  from 
art,  it  was  not  because  it  was  beautiful,  but 
wicked.  It  embalmed  corruption — it  enshrined 
lies !  And  the  Puritan  lived  in  an  age  when 
the  priest,  the  aristocrat,  the  king,  had  long 
and  long  been  served  by  Art. 

I  doubt  if  in  Cromwell's  day  there  was  a  pic 
ture  on  the  globe  that  had  in  it  anything  for 
the  common  people!  The  world's  victories 
had  all  been  king's  victories — warrior's  vic 
tories.  Art  was  busy  crowning  monarchs, 
robing  priests,  or  giving  to  the  passions  a  gar 
ment  of  light  in  which  to  walk  forth  for  mis- 
33 


Lectures  and  Orations 

chief!  Will  any  man  point  me  to  the  picture 
of  the  wonderful  number  that  Raphael  painted 
or  designed  that  had  in  it  a  sympathy  for  the 
common  people  ?  They  are  all  hierarchic  or 
monarchic.  Michael  Angelo  was  at  heart  a 
Republican.  He  loved  the  people's  liberty 
and  hated  oppression.  Yet,  what  single  work 
records  these  sentiments?  The  gentle  Cor- 
reggio  filled  church,  convent,  and  cathedral 
dome  with  wondrous  riches  of  graceful  forms  ; 
but  common  life  found  no  signs  of  love,  no 
help,  no  champion  in  him.  The  Venetian 
school,  illustrious  and  marvellous,  has  left  in 
art  few  signs  of  liberty,  and  yet  where  might 
we  expect  some  recognition  of  the  simple  dig 
nity  of  human  life,  if  not  in  that  Republic  ? 
No :  her  rich  men  had  artists,  her  priests  had 
artists,  her  common  people  had  none. 

In  all  the  Italian  schools  probably  not  a 
picture  had  ever  been  painted  that  carried  a 
welcome  to  the  common  people.  To  be  sure, 
there  were  angels  endless,  and  Madonnas  and 
Holy  Families  without  number ;  there  were 
monkish  legends  turned  into  colour.  Then 
there  were  heathen  divinities  enough  to  bring 
back  the  court  of  Olympia  and  put  Jupiter 
again  in  place  of  Jehovah.  But  in  this  im 
mense  fertility — in  this  prodigious  wealth  of 
34 


Puritanism 

picture,  statue,  canvas  and  fresco — I  know  of 
nothing  that  served  the  common  people.  In 
art,  as  in  literature — Government,  Govern 
ment,  Government,  was  all,  and  People  noth 
ing.  I  know  not  that  the  Romanic  world  of 
art  ever  produced  a  democratic  picture. 

The  Germanic  World,  from  whence  came  all 
our  personal  and  popular  liberties,  had  a  strong 
development  of  popular  subjects  in  their  schools 
of  art.  Their  pictures  teem  with  natural  ob 
jects,  with  birds  and  cattle,  with  husbandry, 
with  personals,  and  their  life  with  domestic 
scenes  and  interiors. 

What  had  an  Englishman,  if  a  commoner, 
to  thank  art  for?  Not  a  painter  in  England, 
from  1500  to  1700,  until  the  days  of  Hogarth, 
ever  expressed  an  idea  which  was  not  inspired 
by  the  aristocracy  or  the  monarchy ! 

While,  then,  the  Puritan  stood  forth  under 
the  inspiration  of  a  new  life  in  the  state — the  life 
of  the  common  people — he  had  no  thanks  to 
render  to  art  in  the  past.  On  the  contrary,  it 
stood  against  him.  It  plead  for  the  oppressor. 
It  deified  the  hierarchy.  It  clothed  vice  in 
radiant  glory.  It  left  homely  industry,  sterling 
integrity  and  democratic  ethics  without  a  line 
or  hue.  Every  cathedral  was  to  him  a  door 
to  Rome.  Every  carved  statue  beckoned  the 

35 


Lectures  and  Orations 

superstitious  soul  to  some  pernicious  error. 
Every  altar-piece  was  a  golden  lie.  Every 
window  suborned  the  sun,  and  sent  his  rays  to 
bear  on  a  painted  lie  or  a  legendary  superstition. 
With  few  exceptions,  at  that  time  of  little  in 
fluence,  the  art  of  all  the  world  was  the  minion 
of  monarchy,  the  servant  of  corrupted  religion 
or  the  mistress  of  lust.  It  had  brought  noth 
ing  to  the  common  people  and  much  to  their 
oppressors.  When  the  Puritan  broke  the 
altar,  it  was  not  the  carving  that  he  hated,  but 
the  idea  carved.  It  was  not  the  window  that 
he  shattered,  but  the  lie  which  it  held  in  its 
gorgeous  blazonries ;  for  nothing  had  any 
worth  to  the  Puritan  which  was  not  morally 
sound,  and  which  did  not  consent  to  Lib 
erty. 

It  is  all  very  well  for  us,  who  are  without 
superstition,  who  cannot  even  understand  the 
meaning  of  old  art,  to  admire  it  and  mourn 
over  its  destruction  by  iconoclastic  Puritans. 
It  is  easy,  after  two  centuries  of  experience,  to 
send  back  good  advice  to  those  who  struggled- 
in  the  twilight  of  their  beginning  without  help 
and  desperately  set  upon  by  evils  that  threaten 
liberty,  truth  and  love  itself.  Let  us  be  glad 
that  so  little  was  destroyed,  and  wonder  at  the 
forbearance  of  outraged  men  that  did  so  little 

36 


Puritanism 

injury  to  arts  which  carried  deadly  contagion 
to  the  popular  imagination  ! 

But  why  do  I  defend  ?  Why  do  I  interpret  ? 
Their  work  is  the  best  eulogy.  Do  you  ask 
for  their  sincerity  ?  Go  with  these  Pilgrims  to 
exile  !  Toss  with  them  upon  the  deep  !  Land 
with  them  on  this  December  day  upon  the 
bleak  New  England  shore — on  this,  the  22d 
of  December,  the  shortest  day  of  the  calendar, 
but  the  longest  day  of  American  history,  and 
most  honoured. 

They  brought  no  gold ;  they  found  none. 
They  found  no  dwellings.  No  sunny  clime 
cheered  the  weary  voyagers ;  no  sweet  fields 
sent  forth  a  savour  such  as,  even  in  winter,  the 
south  of  England  knows.  The  hills  were  for 
ested,  but  leafless,  except  the  pine.  That 
stood  green  and  hopeful,  even  in  midwinter. 
That  tree  they  marked.  They  chose  it  for 
their  banner.  It  yet  stands  upon  the  seal  of 
Massachusetts.  No  symbol  in  heaven,  or  on 
earth,  was  half  so  fit.  What  other  tree  so  well 
can  stand  for  the  principle  of  Liberty  ?  It 
grows  without  culture;  it  flourishes  on  soil 
that  would  starve  another  tree.  Sand  or  rocks 
are  quite  alike  to  it.  Every  root  is  an  engi 
neer.  The  mast  rises  straight  up  to  God.  It 
spreads  out  its  branches  to  the  North,  the 
37 


Lectures  and  Orations 

South,  the  East,  the  West,  alike,  and  spires  up 
in  symmetry  like  a  pinnacle  of  a  cathedral. 
It  defies  the  storm;  is  not  afraid  of  heat  or 
cold.  It  is  grateful  to  culture,  but  thrives 
bravely  even  in  neglect.  It  adorns  the  habita 
tion  of  men,  but  is  just  as  much  the  glory  of 
the  wilderness.  And  when  all  other  trees 
have  yielded  to  the  frost,  the  evergreen  pine 
lets  go  not  a  leaf,  but  holds  up  its  plumed  head 
like  a  warrior,  and  whoops  and  chants  to  the 
winds  all  winter  long,  just  as  it  murmured  and 
sang  all  summer.  Is  not  that  the  tree  of 
Liberty  ?  The  Pilgrims  chose  it — placed  it  on 
their  banner.  All  hail  to  the  Pilgrims'  Pine — 
the  tree  of  Liberty  ! 

When  they  left,  no  one  missed  them.  No 
king  sat  easier.  No  prime  minister,  Richelieu, 
or  Mazarin,  or  Villiers,  felt  his  care  lighter. 
They  were  too  mean.  Gone  or  present,  they 
were  despised.  Their  doctrine  was  a  pestilent 
heresy.  The  whole  world  scorned  it.  A  few 
of  the  Puritans  had  become  Pilgrims  to  a  dis 
tant  continent, — and  that,  wise  men  doubtless' 
thought,  would  end  the  impertinence ! 

Two  hundred  and  forty  years  !  And  what 
says  the  world  now  ?  England  confesses  that 
to  the  Puritan  she  owes  her  liberty.  Their 
name  is  honoured.  Men  grow  famous  by 

38 


Puritanism 

merely  praising  them.  Their  principles,  si 
lently  working,  have  ameliorated  or  changed 
laws  and  customs,  until  now  England  is  one 
of  the  freest  nations  on  the  globe.  Nowhere 
else  is  conscience  more  sacred  from  tyranny. 
The  Press  is  free  as  the  winds,  arid  like  them 
brings  health  by  blowing.  The  tongue  is 
loosed.  Indeed,  were  the  old  Puritan  sud 
denly  to  come  to  life  again  in  Old  England,  so 
far  has  practice  outrun  even  his  utmost  notions, 
that  he  would  be  in  danger  of  conservatism. 

And  upon  the  Continent  of  Europe  a  com 
plete  revolution  is  effected.  Those  nations 
that  have  refused  the  Puritan  principles  are  in 
their  dotage.  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy — where 
are  they  ?  Their  life  died  down  for  want  of 
using.  They  are  the  feeblest  states  in  Europe. 
France,  half  Protestant,  is  becoming  more  free 
every  year.  The  Emperor  is  no  more  mon 
arch  by  the  grace  of  God,  but  by  the  vote  of 
the  people  ! l  There  are  two  centuries  in  that 
simple  thing.  And  what  is  the  schoolmaster 
of  Europe  teaching  the  indocile  kings  ?  That 
nations  may  drive  out  sovereigns  who  abuse 
the  subjects'  rights;  that  the  people  may 
choose  their  own  rulers.  Italy  votes  for  her 
King !  When  votes  are  cast  into  the  ballot- 

1  The  reader  will  remember  that  this  was  1860. 

39 


Lectures  and  Orations 

box  before  St.  Peter's,  the  spirits  of  the  old 
Puritans  will  surely  walk  the  streets  of  Rome, 
and  chant  their  airy  psalms  of  praise.  The 
Czar  signs  the  decree  of  emancipation  in  his 
continental  domains,  and  on  the  1st  of  next 
January,  millions  of  serfs  will  enter  the  year, 
freemen !  Austria,  sullen  and  reluctant,  has 
not  the  strength  to  defend  her  oppressed  Prov 
inces.  Asia  and  Africa  are  coming  rapidly 
under  the  dominion  of  nations  which  advance 
the  world  in  liberty. 

And  is  our  own  land  receding?  Are  we 
unclothing  ourselves  of  the  garments  of  lib 
erty,  just  as  the  nations  are  arising  in  its 
robes  ?  Are  we  about  to  put  on  the  cast-off 
rags  of  despotism,  and  join  the  oppressors 
of  the  earth  just  when  God  is  herding  and 
driving  them  from  among  men  ?  No !  Lib 
erty  was  never  loved  more  dearly  than  now. 
There  are  more  hearts  that  beat  with  intelli 
gent  enthusiasm  for  human  rights  than  ever 
before  !  And  this  night  of  Pilgrim  celebration 
had  never  before  so  wide  and  profound  a  sym-  • 
pathy !  Our  fathers  lit  a  feeble  natal  fire  upon 
the  rocks  this  night,  two  hundred  and  forty 
years  ago,  and  it  has  never  gone  out !  It 
burns  there;  it  burns  here;  it  burns  in  every 
State  in  this  Union ;  and  will  burn  on  for 
40 


Puritanism 

ages  yet.  No  vestal  fire  of  ancient  temples 
ever  endured  so  long.  No  renewed  candles 
ever  glimmered  so  long  before  priestly  shrines, 
as  has  glowed,  and  will  glow,  before  the  Puri 
tan's  flame — the  freeman's  fire ! 

The  Germans  have  a  legend  that,  on  the 
anniversary  of  every  great  world-battle,  the 
spirits  of  the  old  combatants  rise  and  join 
again  in  silent  glory  above  the  scenes  of  their 
former  conflict.  To-night,  methinks,  the  old 
Puritans  of  the  22d  of  December  gather  in 
high  and  solemn  council  over  the  scene  of 
their  landing.  No  war  is  in  the  soul — no 
sword  is  in  their  hand !  A  Divine  glory  is 
upon  them,  and  with  solemn  benediction  they 
stretch  forth  their  shadowless  hands  towards 
all  this  Continent !  And  shall  I  seem  ex 
travagant  if  I  believe  that  thither,  through  the 
high  air,  swoop  the  mighty  dead  of  former 
days,  to  do  them  reverence — the  Rutledges, 
the  Pinckneys,  the  JefTersons,  the  Madisons, 
the  Franklins,  the  Adamses,  the  Hancocks, 
and  all  the  revered  names  from  every  State 
that,  with  them,  carried  forward  the  Puritan 
work?  Let  us  join  them  in  sympathy.  We 
send  forth  our  hearts  to-night  to  every  Amer 
ican  who  loves  the  liberty  which  the  Puritan 
planted  on  these  shores !  We  greet,  over  all 


Lectures  and  Orations 

the  earth,  every  man  who  stands  boldly  for 
the  rights  of  men!  We  give  our  sympathy 
and  our  prayers  to  every  man,  wherever  he 
may  be,  that  is  wronged  and  oppressed ;  and 
that  prayer  is  and  shall  be,  "  God  of  our 
Fathers,  send  confusion  to  the  oppressors,  and 
liberty  to  the  captive  ! " 


II 

THE  WASTES  AND  BURDENS  OF 
SOCIETY 

SOCIETY  is  the  most  comprehensive  of 
all  institutions,  the  most  complex.  It  is 
really  the  method  under  which  men  live  to 
gether  in  all  their  interests,  in  their  social 
relations,  in  their  business,  in  their  very 
various  conditions  of  poverty,  and  riches,  and 
industry.  It  is  the  largest  subject  that  could 
be  handled, — so  large  that  when  the  subtler 
elements  that  enter  into  it  are  considered,  no 
man  can  comprehend  the  whole  of  it.  He  can 
select  departments,  the  moral  elements,  the 
political  elements,  the  industrial  elements,  the 
intellectual  elements ;  but  there  is  in  society 
something  more  than  either  or  all  of  these 
put  together. 

In  the  human  body  there  are  hands,  there 
are  feet,  there  is  a  heart,  and  there  is  a  head ; 
but  when  the  physiologist  has  enumerated 
every  organ  and  all  its  functions,  he  has  not 
yet  described  the  man.  Life  is  that  subtle 
43 


Lectures  and  Orations 

thing  that  no  man  can  express  and  no  man 
can  understand;  and  so  it  is  in  that  great 
organic  body — Society.  Under  the  providence 
of  God  it  is  an  existence  having  within  itself, 
though  apparently  much  mixed  and  obscured, 
a  life  of  its  own.  Its  formation  depends  very 
much  on  climate,  on  the  occupations  of  men, 
on  the  government  and  laws  under  which  they 
live,  upon  the  condition  of  religious  beliefs 
that  prevail  among  them,  whether  old  or  late 
in  formation ;  yet,  after  all,  with  all  these 
variations  affected  by  incidental  circum 
stances,  there  is  something  more  than  these 
enumerations  indicate. 

If  you  had  never  seen  an  acorn  or  any  seed 
brought  from  a  distant  land,  you  might  make 
a  difference  in  its  growth  by  the  soil  which 
you  gave  it,  by  the  culture  that  followed  it,  by 
the  climate  in  which  it  was  brought  forward ; 
but  after  all  there  would  be  in  that  seed  some 
thing  that  would  not  change;  it  would  go 
right  on  from  the  germ  to  unfold  itself  as  it 
pleased,  according  to  the  nature  that  was  in 
the  seed. 

This   is  entirely  set  aside,  apparently,  by 

those   men  who   are   seeking   to   reconstruct 

society  in  the  air  upon  the  principle  of  some 

theory.     They  think   that  society  as  it   has 

44 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

been  is  very  imperfect ;  so  do  I.  They  think  * 
it  may  be  made  much  better;  so  do  I.  They 
think  they  have  got  the  trick  of  doing  it ;  and 
I  don't.  They  formulate  this,  and  they  formu 
late  that,  and  after  all  society  goes  stumbling 
on  and  has  its  own  way.  As  if  a  naturalist 
would  think  that  an  elephant  was  a  great  deal 
too  big,  and  that  he  was  clumsy,  and  should 
undertake  to  make  elephants  grow  according 
to  his  own  idea  of  alertness  and  strength  com 
bined,  as  they  are  not  in  the  elephant.  So 
ciety  is  an  unmanageable  thing.  Whatever 
exertion  you  lay  out  on  it  will  produce  some 
effect;  yet  it  will  not  be  the  result  of  your 
will,  but  the  result  that  Nature  gives  to  this 
complex  organization  as  it  pleases  her.  Let 
me  then  proceed,  not  to  undertake  to  pro 
pound  a  new  theory  of  what  society  ought  to 
be,  but  simply  to  do  what  every  doctor  does. 
He  can  diagnose  what  is  the  health  or  sickness 
of  every  individual,  but  he  cannot  reconstruct 
it ;  he  must  act  upon  the  lines  of  creation  for 
each  individual.  I  can  criticize,  I  can  point 
out  wastes,  I  can  show  the  burdens,  and  these 
may  successively  be  cut  down  by  criticism, 
and  practically  reduced  in  weight,  in  number, 
in  various  ways;  but  this  is  very  different 
from  undertaking  to  reconstruct  society  from 
45 


Lectures  and  Orations 

that  foundation  upon  some  notion  of  philos 
ophy. 

The  first  burden  that  I  shall  mention,  the 
first  waste,  is  Sickness  and  Weakness.  Here 
and  all  the  way  through  I  beg  you  to  under 
stand  that  I  am  not  discussing  these  topics, 
which  in  succession  will  come  up,  from  the 
standpoint  of  humanity  or  morality,  and  still 
less  from  the  standpoint  of  spiritual  religion, 
but  from  the  standpoint  of  political  economy. 
That  is  the  "  science  "  which  takes  cognizance 
of  the  production  of  wealth,  its  distribution, 
and  its  uses  in  rendering  society  strong  and 
happy,  and  I  am  speaking  now  in  regard  to 
each  successive  phase  of  waste  and  of  burden 
from  that  point. 

The  proper  duration  of  human  life  I  suppose 
to  be  anywhere  from  eighty  to  a  hundred 
years.  Men  are  built  so  that  they  have  a 
right  to  expect  that.  A  man  ought  to  be 
ashamed  to  die  before  he  is  seventy  years  old. 
But  the  average  duration  of  human  life  is 
about  thirty-three  years.  Consider  what  & 
waste  that  is,  when  society  has  in  itself  the 
power  of  prolonging  life  to  a  hundred  years, 
or  ninety  years,  or  eighty  years,  and  the 
average  of  the  duration  of  life  is  but  thirty, 
according  to  the  old  account,  and  thirty-three 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

now,  according  to  the  more  modern  estimate. 
Well,  here  is  two-thirds  wasted;  one-third 
only  does  all  the  work  that  is  done  in  human 
society ;  and  if  you  consider  the  period  of 
non-productiveness  necessary  in  the  develop 
ment  of  childhood,  and  if  you  give  to  the  aged 
and  outworn  the  liberty  of  some  years  on  the 
other  side  of  life,  and  then  count  the  pro 
ductive  forces,  I  think  it  may  be  said,  taking 
the  world  over,  it  is  a  fair  estimate  that  one- 
fourth  of  the  human  family  do  all  the  work 
that  is  done,  and  support  the  other  three- 
fourths.  Now,  sickness  is,  from  the  stand 
point  of  political  economy,  a  squandering  of 
the  forces  of  productive  labour  in  human  life. 
No  corporation,  no  commercial  enterprise 
could  succeed, — they  would  go  to  smash,  the 
whole  of  them, — if  they  wasted  three-fourths 
of  all  their  forces ;  but  this  great  institu 
tion,  Human  Society,  squanders  three-fourths 
of  all  its  forces,  yet  steadily  holds  on 
its  way  through  time ;  in  spite  of  all  its 
diseases  and  all  its  burdens  and  all  its  squan 
derings,  it  continues  to  exist ;  such  are  its  vital 
forces. 

Now  from  the  standpoint  of  political  econ 
omy,  weakness  is  worse  than  sickness,  for  if  a 
man  has  any  self-respect  when  he  is  sick  he 
47 


Lectures  and  Orations 

will  either  get  well  or  he  will  die ;  but  a  man 
that  is  weak  will  not  do  either.  He  not  only 
does  nothing,  but  he  hangs  on  the  hands  of 
men  who  do  take  care  of  him,  and,  so  far  as 
political  economy  is  concerned,  though  add 
ing  nothing  he  subtracts  a  good  deal.  From 
the  standpoint  of  affection  it  is  a  very  different 
question,  but  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pro 
ductiveness  of  mankind  in  political  economy 
it  is  a  very  fair  question,  so  that  weakness  and 
death  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  wastes  of  the 
industrial  forces  of  human  life. 

One  would  not  suppose,  after  the  world  has 
had  philosophy  so  long  and  has  so  much  of  it 
now,  that  there  would  be  any  need,  such  as  I 
feel  burdened  with  to-night,  to  set  forth  how 
utterly  inadequate  men's  ideas  are  in  regard  to 
the  maintenance  and  propagation  of  health. 
There  are  two  things  that  God  made  the  most 
of  in  this  world  that  men  are  more  afraid  of 
than  of  anything  else — fresh  air  and  cold 
water.  As  regards  this  matter  of  fresh  air  :  59 
that  a  man  can  breathe,  he  seldom  troubles 
himself  what  it  is  he  is  breathing  ;  but  nature 
considers  what  it  is  that  he  is  breathing  all  the 
time.  I  have  been  speaking  for  more  than 
fifty  years  in  every  conceivable  place — in 
halls,  in  churches — and  I  have  yet  to  meet 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

one  single  place  where  an  audience  ought  to 
be  detained  for  an  hour. 

A  healthy  man  in  the  open  air  breathes 
about  two  thousand  cubic  feet  of  air  an  hour. 
Our  best  hospitals  make  arrangements  for 
about  twelve  hundred  feet  per  hour  ;  our  best 
jails  and  penitentiaries  make  provision  for 
about  six  hundred  cubic  feet  per  hour ;  what 
the  churches  provide  I  do  not  know.  The 
schools  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia — and  it  is 
supposed  to  be  a  model  city — provide  for 
each  child  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  cubic 
feet  per  hour.  In  our  schools  in  Brooklyn, 
where  I  live,  fifty-nine,  forty-five,  thirty-nine, 
and,  in  one  disgraceful  instance,  twenty-four 
cubic  feet  are  provided  for  those  little  wretches 
that  we  call  our  children.  If  they  had  been 
thieves  they  would  have  got  six  hundred  in 
jail.  An  audience  gathered  together  in 
ordinary  assembly-rooms  not  only  have  no 
considerable  proportion  of  that  air  which 
they  should  have,  but  ordinarily  in  such  an 
assembly-room  as  this,  in  about  fifteen  minutes 
the  fresh  air  has  been  all  used  up  once,  and  as 
there  is  very  little  resupply  it  will  very  soon 
be  breathed  over  twice,  three  times,  four  times, 
five  times,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  this  assembly  will 
49 


Lectures  and  Orations 

(have  in  him  something  of  every  other  man, 
woman,  and  child.  It  is  but  very  rarely  that 
one  sees  a  person  who  thinks  so  well  of  an 
other  that  he  would  like  to  eat  him  up. 

This  vaporous  intimacy  with  each  other's 
interiors  is  not  wholesome,  and  yet  it  is  al 
most  universal.  The  filth  of  it  never  seems 
to  have  struck  anybody  at  all.  If  you  were 
to  invite  a  friend  to  your  house,  and  put  him 
into  a  bed  where  fifty  men  in  succession  had 
slept  without  any  change  of  sheets,  he  would 
justly  think  you  were  a  filthy  householder, 
and  you  would  have  a  right  to  be  ashamed ; 
or  if  you  sat  a  man  down  to  your  table,  and 
told  him  that  ten  men  had  eaten  from  that 
knife  and  fork  and  plate  before  he  came  in,  he 
would  not  tolerate  it  for  a  moment :  but  yet  in 
an  audience-room  they  will  go  on  eating  each 
other  over  and  over  and  over  again  without 
the  slightest  reluctance.  Every  man  or  woman 
in  a  congregation  in  half  an  hour  has  some 
thing  in  him  of  everybody  else.  But  nobody 
thinks  about  it,  and  of  all  creation  the  men 
who  think  less  about  it  than  any  others  are 
architects.  They  make  clean  the  outside  and 
beautify  the  house,  but  within  it  is  full  of  dead 
men's  breaths,  or  the  dead  breaths  of  men. 

Well,  there  has  been  an  estimate  formed  in 

5° 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

the  United  States,  which  I  suppose  will  answer 
substantially  for  Great  Britain,  as  to  the  eco 
nomical  value  of  a  man.  We  estimate  a  man's 
value  in  the  United  States  as  based  upon  the 
fact  that  men  earn  upon  an  average  six  hundred 
dollars  a  year,  and  a  man's  value  is  a  capital 
whose  interest  amounts  to  six  hundred  dollars 
a  year.  Thus,  every  time  an  experienced 
mechanic,  every  time  a  labouring  farmer, 
every  time  a  productive  citizen  dies,  the  com 
munity  loses  the  capital,  whose  annual  interest 
is  six  hundred  dollars.  Of  course,  when  I  am 
called  to  a  funeral  I  never  look  at  it  from  that 
standpoint.  I  never  say, "  Six  hundred  dollars 
gone,  brethren  !  "  Sentiment,  taste,  and  re 
ligious  feeling  would  prevent  that;  but  it  is 
gone,  and  gone  very  largely  by  the  decease 
of  men  whom  society  cannot  afford  to  let  go. 
If  an  annual  death  of  six  hundred  men  in  the 
community  had  taken  place,  and  they  were 
all  shifty  politicians,  why,  we  could  get  along 
all  the  better  for  their  going.  But  one  in 
genious,  inventive,  skillful,  and  industrious 
mechanic  is  worth  a  whole  shoal  of  those  in 
sects  that  fly  about  the  community  called 
politicians. 

Now  it  is  the  duty  of  every  civic  ruler  to 
look  at  this  matter;  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
51 


Lectures  and  Orations 

governing  body,  of  Nation,  State,  county, 
town,  city,  to  look  after  the  health  of  the 
citizens,  in  draining,  in  lighting,  in  cleansing 
the  streets,  and  in  securing  them  from  epi 
demics,  or  from  the  more  gradual  causes  of 
sickness,  and  weakness,  and  death.  And  in 
doing  this  work  it  is  indispensable,  according 
to  the  dictates  of  the  largest  philosophy — and 
that  is  Christianity — that  the  care  should  be 
at  the  bottom  of  society,  first  and  mainly,  and 
not  at  the  top.  If  you  go  into  a  community 
and  see  beautiful  mansions,  you  have  a  right 
to  rejoice  in  them.  I  like  to  see  fine  streets, 
well  shaded ;  I  like  to  see  comfortable  dwell 
ings,  surrounded  by  flowers,  and  all  the  ele 
ments  of  taste ;  but,  after  all,  I  can  form  no 
idea  of  the  Christian  civilization  of  any  com 
munity  till  I  go  down  and  see  where  the 
working  men  live,  where  the  mechanics  live. 
The  test  of  civilization  is  not  at  the  top,  it  is 
the  average,  but  more  especially  the  bottom  of 
society.  They  may  be  too  weak  to  do  it 
themselves,  they  may  be  too  ignorant  to  do  it 
themselves  ;  it  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  highest 
duties  of  civic  bodies  to  see  to  it  that  the 
great  under-mass  of  human  society  are  put  and 
kept  in  conditions  of  health. 

And  there  is  also  an  appeal  in  this  matter  to 
52 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

those  that  are  able  by  reason  of  knowledge 
and  of  wealth  to  have  ventilated  dwellings 
and  all  the  sanitary  appliances  of  modern 
knowledge.  It  is  right ;  but  it  is  not  the  only 
thing  that  is  right.  No  man  can  go  home 
and  shut  his  door  and  walk  upon  his  royal 
carpets  and  say,  "  All  things  in  my  house  con 
duce  to  health."  Society  is  so  knit  together 
that  the  condition  of  the  upper  classes  is  very 
largely,  though  indirectly,  determined  by  the 
condition  of  the  under  classes,  and  in  no  one 
respect  more  than  in  the  matter  of  health ;  for, 
although  they  may  seem  to  you  brutal,  there 
is  no  family  so  poor,  there  is  no  family  so 
ignorant,  there  is  no  family  so  sottish  that 
they  cannot  develop  smallpox  and  malarial 
fevers.  And  when  these  ills  are  developed 
they  do  not  stay  at  home ;  the  wind  carries 
them,  they  sweep  through  the  whole  com 
munity,  and  the  neglect  and  indolence  of  the 
upper  classes  may  return  in  the  form  of  so- 
called  Divine  Providence  through  the  develop 
ment  of  epidemics  by  the  under  classes  of 
society.  For  their  own  sake  and  for  the  sake 
of  humanity  every  thinking  man  and  citizen 
well  off  should  see  to  it  that  the  great  body  of 
society  should  be  taken  care  of  and  that  a 
preventable  disease  should  not  be  allowed  to 
53 


Lectures  and  Orations 

ravage  the  community.  It  is  pretty  generally 
the  custom  in  New  England,  where  the 
winters  are  long,  to  have  a  great  store  of 
potatoes,  cabbages,  onions,  and  all  manner  of 
vegetables,  and  the  old-fashioned  way  was,  as 
soon  as  the  climate  became  too  severe  for 
them  to  be  left  out  in  the  open  air,  to  put 
them  in  the  cellars,  which  are  built  with  thick 
walls,  where  they  will  not  freeze.  But  when 
the  spring  begins  to  come  on  and  the  remnant 
of  the  vegetables  begins  to  reek  and  germinate 
malarial  influences,  those  silent,  vaporous  in 
fluences  steal  up  through  crack  and  cranny  and 
partition.  By  and  by  one  of  the  children  is 
sick  ;  the  doctor  is  sent  for.  He  says  :  "  It  is 
singular  that  the  child  should  have  such  a 
trouble  as  this ;  if  you  lived  in  a  squalid 
neighbourhood  I  could  understand  it,  but  this 
looks  very  much  as  if  it  were  malarial  dis 
ease."  The  child  dies.  By  and  by  a  sec 
ond  child  is  taken  sick,  and  the  wonder  grows  ; 
and  the  mother  goes  down,  and  by  this  time 
they  send  for  the  minister,  and  he  looks  grave.- 
"  Mysterious  providence  !  "  he  says.  Mysteri 
ous  providence  !  It  is  not  providence  at  all : 
it  is  rotten  onions  and  potatoes  down-stairs. 
You  cannot  have  a  foul  cellar  and  not  have  a 
dangerous  up-stairs  ;  and  in  society  the  upper 
54 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

classes  have  a  great  deal  more  risk  than  they 
are  apt  to  suppose;  though  they  keep  them 
selves  in  a  sanative  condition,  yet  there  is  this 
reeking  influence  that  is  coming  up  directly  or 
indirectly  from  society  everywhere. 

The  next  burden  and  waste  in  society  that  I 
should  mention  is  that  which  springs  upon  us 
from  our  Parasites.  A  parasite  is  an  animal 
organized  to  get  its  living  out  of  somebody 
else.  It  does  not  work  ;  it  sucks  for  a  living. 
Of  course,  you  know  what  a  vegetable  parasite 
is,  like  the  mistletoe  and  certain  air  plants  that 
live  upon  trees  ;  and  the  insect  parasite,  the  red 
spider,  and  the  green  aphis  and  aphides  every 
where;  we  know  what  animal  parasites  are, 
intestinal  or  exterior  ;  but  the  worst  parasites 
in  the  world  are  human  parasites,  and  society 
is  full  of  them.  All  healthy  men  competent  to 
work,  but  unwilling,  who  live  upon  society 
without  giving  an  equivalent,  I  call  parasites. 
The  young  man  has  had  some  ambition  ;  he 
has  run  through  his  active  energies,  and  he 
loiters  about  the  streets  morning  and  noon  and 
night,  and  picks  up  a  living,  Providence  may 
know  how.  All  vicious  men,  and  men  that 
come  to  the  legitimate  results  of  vice,  all 
criminal  men  that  forsake  industries  and  live 
by  warfare,  open  or  secret,  I  call  parasites. 
55 


Lectures  and  Orations 

These  that  become  the  offscouring  of  com 
munities,  that  ichorously  drop  from  stage  to 
stage,  and  at  the  bottom  form  a  malarious  mud 
— these  parasites  of  society  are  wasters ;  and  I 
have  a  right  to  denounce  vice  and  crime  and 
all  the  courses  that  lead  to  them,  not  alone 
upon  high  moral  principle,  not  alone  upon 
mere  schedules  of  morality,  but  because  they 
are  my  enemies  and  your  enemies,  and  they 
bleed  us  and  suck  us ;  they  are  vermin  that  in 
fest  our  bodies  and  our  families.  And  if  these 
classes  are  vicious,  criminal,  and  parasitic, 
how  much  more  are  they  that  make  them, 
those  whose  very  trade  and  livelihood  consist 
in  making  vicious  and  criminal  parasites  in  a 
community !  The  men  that  make  drunkards 
are  worse  than  the  drunkards.  The  men  that 
make  gamblers  are  worse  than  the  gamblers. 
The  men  that  furnish  lust  with  its  material  are 
worse  than  those  that  are  overcome  by  the  lust. 
And  yet,  when  we  preach  a  doctrine  of 
restriction  and  ask  for  laws  that  should  hold 
in  these  parasites  of  society,  what  a  clamour  is 
raised — we  are  interfering  with  the  liberty  of 
men  ;  they  have  a  right  to  support  their  fami 
lies.  Especially  they  say,  "  What  has  a  min 
ister  got  to  do  with  this  business  ?  Why  does 
not  he  attend  to  preaching  the  gospel  of 
56 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

peace  ?  Why  does  he  come  out  and  interfere 
so  with  the  vocations  of  men  in  society  ?  "  I 
was  a  citizen  before  I  was  a  minister,  and  I  do 
it  as  a  man  and  citizen,  not  as  a  professional 
minister ;  yet  I  would  do  it  that  way  rather 
than  let  it  go  undone,  for  I  am  one  of  those 
who  do  not  believe  in  that  kind  of  minister 
that  seems  to  be  a  cross  between  a  man  and 
a  woman.  There  was  a  time  when  a  man 
with  a  hectic  cheek  and  sunken  eye  was  sup 
posed  to  be  near  heaven,  and  fitted  to  teach 
men  and  young  men  in  the  proportion  in 
which  he  was  going  to  the  grave  himself. 
Times  are  changed,  and  now  robust  and 
strong,  open-eyed  men  are  ministers  because 
they  are  men,  and  have  practical,  humane 
thoughts  and  sympathies,  living  among  men 
as  men,  and  not  lifted  above  men  on  some 
velvet  shelf  where  by  reason  of  their  mere 
externals  they  are  considered  above  and  better 
than  the  average  of  human  nature.  Either 
way,  I  think  it  is  the  duty  of  every  moral 
teacher  to  scourge  the  makers  of  crimes,  and 
the  men  that  invalidate  the  health  or  morality 
of  the  great  body  of  the  community.  And 
there  is  another  reason  why  I  have  a  right  to 
speak  out.  You  declare  that  I  have  no  right 
to  meddle  with  other  people's  business;  no, 
57 


Lectures  and  Orations 

but  I  have  a  right  to  take  care  of  my  own 
business.  My  sons  and  daughters  are  dear  to 
me,  and  when  men  do  wrong  about  them  by 
lures  and  temptations  and  snares,  for  hu 
manity's  sake  as  well  as  for  parental  affection 
and  love  I  have  a  right  to  interfere. 

And  I  hold  that  that  is  a  sphere  in  which 
above  all  others  a  woman  has  a  right  to  inter 
fere.  What  are  called  woman's  rights  are 
simply  the  rights  of  human  beings,  and  before 
a  woman  can  do  right  and  well  in  the  direc 
tion  of  humanity  and  virtue  she  has  a  right  to 
vote.  In  our  land  the  vote  is  rapidly  becom 
ing  the  magister  as  things  go  with  us,  and 
more  and  more  throughout  all  civilized  coun 
tries  the  power  of  the  vote  is  increasing. 
I  hold  that  a  woman  has  the  right  to  vote ; 
but  if  you  withhold  from  her  on  any  consid 
erations  of  supposed  propriety  voting  for  the 
remote  questions  of  civility,  there  is  one 
sphere  where  a  woman  is  not  allowed  to  vote, 
and  where  she  ought  to  vote.  She  brings 
forth  children  in  pain,  she  spends  her  life  on* 
them,  bringing  them  up  from  infancy  and 
helplessness  to  manhood  and  strength ;  and  if 
there  is  one  creature  on  the  earth  that  has  a 
right  to  vote  what  sort  of  school  there  should 
be  in  a  district,  what  teacher  should  be  there, 

58 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

for  how  many  months  it  should  be  kept  open, 
what  should  be  taught  in  it,  if  there  is  one 
person  who  has  a  right  to  speak  of  the  gam 
bling  dens  and  drinking  hells  that  are  round 
about  her  family,  it  is  the  mother  of  the 
children,  and  in  all  police  relations  and  educa 
tional  matters  and  everything  that  touches  the 
virtue  and  morality  of  society,  our  civilization 
will  not  be  perfected  until  it  should  be,  as  it  is 
in  religion,  that  man  and  woman  stand  before 
God  equal  and  alike. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  this  matter  of  the 
criminal  classes  that  is  worthy  a  moment's 
consideration.  It  is  industry  that  pays  for 
laziness ;  it  is  virtue  that  pays  for  vice ;  it  is 
law-abiding  and  God-fearing  men  that  pay  for 
unprincipled  men's  misdeeds.  All  the  waste 
of  society  is  endured  by  the  virtuous  ele 
ments  in  it.  I  am  taxed,  you  are  taxed 
heavily — taxed  not  for  humanity  in  the  care 
of  the  disabled  poor — that  tax  we  pay  cheer 
fully  ;  but  you  are  taxed  and  I  am  taxed  for 
the  ignorance,  for  the  vice,  for  the  crime,  for 
the  laziness,  of  all  the  parasitic  forces  of 
human  society.  I  am  content  when  I  am 
taxed  by  our  law  that  applies  equally  to  every 
one,  but  the  pickpocket  has  no  right  to  put 
his  hand  in  my  pocket ;  and  the  grog-seller 
59 


Lectures  and  Orations 

has  no  right  to  levy  taxes  on  me.  The  vices 
of  society  are  the  most  arrogant  of  tax-gath 
erers  ;  they  lay  the  imposts  themselves ;  they 
themselves  declare  how  much  men  shall  pay ; 
they  collect  it  themselves ;  you  stand  by  and 
pay  for  the  devil's  wages. 

The  third  waste  that  I  shall  mention  is 
that  which  comes  from  Ignorance.  It  is  a 
great  loss  to  a  man  to  have  had  a  head  put  on 
him  with  nothing  in  it,  and  next  to  that  it  is  a 
great  misfortune  to  a  man  to  have  had  a  good 
deal  put  into  his  head  and  not  know  it  is 
there.  It  is  a  curse  to  an  ignorant  man  to  be 
ignorant.  If  a  man  had  no  eyes,  no  ears,  and 
no  use  of  his  tongue,  he  would  be  shut  out 
from  so  much  of  knowledge,  and  every  man 
would  bemoan  his  condition  and  ask,  "  Why 
does  he  live  ?  "  But  more  than  the  eyes  and 
the  ears  and  the  tongue  are  perpetually  para 
lyzed  in  an  ignorant  man.  Eyes  he  has,  but 
he  cannot  see  the  length  of  his  hand ;  ears  he 
has,  and  all  the  finest  sounds  in  creation  escape 
him  ;  a  tongue  he  has,  but  it  is  cursed  with 
blundering.  An  ignorant  man  is  a  man  whom 
God  packed  up  and  men  have  not  yet  unfolded. 
If  a  man  has  as  a  mechanic  a  chest  of  tools 
and  knows  how  to  use  a  gimlet  and  a  saw, 
and  that  is  all,  it  is  a  great  deprivation  to 
60 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

him;  he  cannot  keep  up  in  the  race  of  life; 
and  an  ignorant  man  must  of  necessity  be 
dropping  down,  down  to  the  bottom. 

Society  moves  upon  averages.  To  make 
society  progressive,  it  is  not  enough  to  develop 
the  top  of  it.  In  the  dairy  it  may  be  all  very 
well  to  have  the  cream  on  the  top,  but  it  is 
very  poor  in  society  to  have  the  thing  re 
peated;  for  society  does  not  move  by  the 
force  of  its  top :  that  influences  some,  but  it 
is  the  average  of  the  mass  that  either  acceler 
ates  or  retards  the  movements  of  society  in 
advance.  It  is  the  hull  and  the  freight,  and 
not  the  sails  alone,  that  determine  the  quick 
ness  of  the  voyage,  and  ignorance  at  the  bot 
tom  of  society  benumbs  society  ;  it  is  obliged 
to  drag  this  vast  bulk.  It  is  like  a  gouty  man 
trying  to  walk ;  he  may  be  good  at  the  top 
and  all  the  way  down,  but  his  feet  are  not 
good,  and  he  cannot  walk.  It  behooves,  there 
fore,  as  a  matter  of  political  economy  simply, 
that  by  schools  and  popular  knowledge  ig 
norance  should  be  purged  out  from  every 
community.  There  can  be  no  prosperity  de 
serving  of  that  name  that  leaves  at  the  bot 
tom  a  section  of  ignorance  nearly  equal  in 
numbers  to  that  in  the  middle  or  top  of  so 
ciety. 

61 


Lectures  and  Orations 

But  chiefly  it  is  the  relation  of  ignorance  to 
public  affairs  that  I  would  emphasize, — the 
relation  of  ignorance  in  the  production  of 
property,  and  in  that  which  concerns  all  prop 
erty,  legitimate  legislation,  and  administration. 
In  olden  times,  when  there  were  but  two  classes 
in  the  state,  one  of  which  said :  "  Thus  saith 
the  king,"  and  the  other  had  nothing  to  do 
but  to  say :  "  Yea  "  and  "  Amen,"  the  matter 
of  political  economy  did  not  matter  so  very 
much.  But  with  the  growth  of  the  ages  the 
light  that  in  early  times  shone  only  on  the  top 
of  the  mountain  is  finding  its  way  down  the 
mountainside  lower  and  lower  into  the  valley, 
and  the  inevitable  course  of  the  development 
of  humanity  is  that  the  great  under  classes 
shall  have  some  voice.  At  last  we  have  come 
to  a  period  in  which  it  may  be  said  of  all  the 
civilized  nations  of  Europe  and  of  America 
that  the  mass  of  the  common  people  have 
gained  such  a  twilight  intelligence  that  they 
are  partners  in  the  administration  of  law  and 
of  government.  Now  where  men  holding  the 
vote  are  really  determinative  of  the  best  legis 
lation,  it  is  to  the  last  degree  important  that 
they  should  have  both  knowledge  and  intelli 
gence.  I  make  a  distinction  between  knowl 
edge  and  intelligence.  Intelligence  is  the 
62 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

capacity  to  see,  to  understand,  to  choose,  to 
determine ;  it  is  an  ever-active  force ;  but 
knowledge  is  merely  one  of  the  fruits  of  intel 
ligence — what  it  has  found  out.  They  are 
separable.  I  have  known  a  great  many  men 
stop  with  knowledge,  who  could  do  nothing ; 
I  have  known  men  that  had  intelligence  and 
no  education,  and  did  a  great  deal.  Best  it  is 
that  both,  large  knowledge  springing  from 
active  intelligence,  should  be  the  possession  of 
every  citizen. 

Above  all,  we  need  that  men  should  have 
the  kind  of  education  that  should  enable  them 
to  put  themselves  to  their  best  uses.  And 
this  is  an  experiment  that  has  been  carried  on 
in  America.  We  hold  here  that  it  is  a  crime 
to  allow  a  man  or  his  children  to  grow  up  in 
ignorance — a  crime  against  the  Common 
wealth.  From  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Pacific,  and  from  the  Lakes  on  the  North  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  the  South,  there  is  not 
now  a  State  nor  a  Territory,  the  population 
being  either  white  or  black,  foreign  immigrants 
or  native-born  citizens,  in  which  there  are  not 
established  free  public  schools.  For  it  is  held 
to  be  necessary  for  the  existence  of  the  Com 
monwealth  that  those  who  have  the  power  of 
the  vote  shall  have  that  power  in  the  hands  of 
63 


Lectures  and  Orations 

intelligence,  and  for  the  conservation  of  the 
State  itself.  The  State,  the  Commonwealth 
thereof,  all  of  them  determine  that  the  people, 
as  the  first  condition  oi  citizenship,  shall  come 
up  through  the  common  schools  of  America, 
and  no  man  pays  one  farthing  for  the  instruc 
tion  of  his  children  in  those  schools,  because 
the  State  cannot  afford  any  other  conditions 
for  its  rising  population.  More  than  that,  we 
are  making  our  common  schools  so  good  that 
comparatively  few  private  paid  schools  can 
stand  under  them.  And  it  is  a  good  thing  in 
another  way,  too ;  it  is  a  good  thing  for  every 
class  in  society,  however  widely  they  may  ul 
timately  differ,  to  start  together  in  a  common 
citizenship.  The  children  of  the  rich  and  the 
children  of  the  poor  sit  together  on  the  same 
bench.  The  rich  man's  dunce  has  no  prefer 
ence  over  the  poor  man's  genius.  Here  is  a 
clergyman's  son,  and  right  alongside  of  him 
the  son  of  the  clergyman's  washerwoman,  and 
oftentimes  the  last  shall  be  first  and  the  first 
last.  Where  there  is  to  be  a  government  of 
the  people  it  is  a  good  thing  that  for  once  in 
their  life  there  shall  be  a  level,  and  that  the 
children  shall  stand  on  that  democratic  level 
all  together  and  alike  ;  then  let  them  shoot  up 
just  as  far  as  their  several  talents  will  allow  them. 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

The  next  and  fourth  of  the  wastes  that  I 
shall  mention  is  that  of  Quarrelsomeness,  the 
bulldog  nature  of  men.  Darwin  supposes  that 
men  descended,  or  ascended,  rather,  from  the 
animal,  and  I  think  I  have  seen  men  that  came 
through  the  wolf, — another  man  seems  to  have 
come  through  the  bear,  another  through  the 
fox,  and  some  men  through  the  hog,  and  I  see 
some  men  that  came  through  the  bulldog. 
The  excitement  of  life  with  them  is  some  form 
of  combating;  they  love  to  fight.  Now  the 
honest  and  temperate  conflict,  the  attrition  of 
mind  with  mind,  the  comparision  of  opinions 
and  the  proof  of  them  in  a  gentle  school  of 
fencing,  or  the  generous  emulation  of  bodily 
athletics,  is  beneficial.  The  want  of  excite 
ment  is  death.  Excitement  carried  on  from 
the  basilar  passions  is  bad;  intellectual  and 
moral  excitements  are  the  highest  conditions 
of  social  life.  But  the  kind  of  excitement  that 
becomes  quarrelsome  and  cruel  has  stood  in 
the  way  of  human  progress  for  centuries,  and 
it  is  not  out  of  the  way  yet.  For  example, 
there  are  organized  hindrances  that  stand  upon 
quarrelsomeness  and  selfishness.  In  com 
merce  competition,  to  a  certain  extent,  is  hon 
est,  but  carried  to  excess  it  becomes  quarrel 
someness.  Men  may,  and  often  do,  try  to 

6; 


Lectures  and  Orations 

swallow  up  all  those  that  are  weaker  than  they. 
Up  to  a  certain  point  competition  is  normal 
and  wholesome,  but  beyond  that  point  I  think 
it  is  criminal.  All  attempts  to  restrict  the 
liberty  of  men,  and  all  violence  in  doing  it, 
are  criminal.  I  do  not  speak  alone  of  govern 
mental  violence,  but  of  legislative  violence.  I 
regard  Free  Trade  as  being  the  virtue  of  our 
age,  and  believe  that  oppressive  taxations  are 
quarrelling  with  the  best  interests  of  the  whole 
of  human  society. 

But  all  these  things  are  not  to  be  compared 
for  one  moment — the  conflicts  of  politics,  the 
fierce  engendered  strifes  that  grow  out  of  it, 
the  over-reaching,  the  under-reachings  of  men 
— all  these  secular  things  are  not  to  be  com 
pared  for  one  single  moment  as  hindrances, 
with  organized  religious  quarrelsomeness. 
About  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  some  in 
expert  angels  came  singing  out  of  heaven,  and 
their  song  or  chant  was  :  "  On  earth  peace, 
good-will  to  men  !  "  But  they  looked  down 
and  saw  what  men  were  doing,  and  they  flew 
back  to  heaven  as  quick  as  they  could  go,  and 
never  sang  that  song  again.  There  never  was 
so  little  of  anything  on  earth  as  peace,  and 
among  those  things  that  have  destroyed  it 
nothing  has  done  more  than  organized  relig- 
66 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

ion.  Religion  as  a  creed  or  system  has  been 
one  of  the  most  ruthless  or  destructive  of  the 
influences  that  have  ravaged  human  society. 
Turn  back  on  the  pages  of  history.  Look  at 
the  wars  that  have  sprung  from  creed  differ 
ences  ;  look  at  the  battles,  the  despotism,  the 
racks,  the  inquisitions  ;  go  through  the  bloody 
path  in  which  the  feet  of  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
acting  as  Providential  Governor  of  the  world, 
has  passed.  Christ  has  trodden  again  Geth- 
semane,  and  that  for  two  thousand  years,  and 
the  chief  advocates  of  His  opposition  have 
been  those  that  were  anointed  and  ordained  to 
preach  the  principle  of  love  and  of  peace.  All 
the  world,  when  the  Greek  Church  and  the 
great  Catholic  Church  were  at  odds  with  each 
other,  was  inflamed.  In  both  Churches — but 
more  especially  in  the  Catholic  Church — what 
noble  names  !  what  saintly  women !  what  ad 
mirable  men  !  what  sweet  literature  !  And  to 
day,  how  it  shows  some  of  the  noblest  speci 
mens  of  Christian  life  !  And  yet,  when  you 
look  upon  its  whole  prolonged  history,  you 
see  it  smiting  here  and  there  by  the  sword,  by 
fines,  imprisonments,  and  in  every  other  way. 
Religion  was  spoiled  in  its  very  fountain,  and 
instead  of  its  being  love,  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law  of  the  universe,  it  was  simply  infernal.  In 


Lectures  and  Orations 

those  ages  in  which  the  Church  organized  it 
self  to  compel  everybody  to  worship  in  some 
one  way,  to  believe  in  some  one  schedule  of 
doctrine,  to  declare  themselves  in  affiliation 
with  any  special  line  of  organization,  and  some 
of  the  protesting  Reformers  of  the  Church  were 
just  as  savage  on  those  whom  they  called 
heretics,  I  do  not  wonder  that  a  man  who  was 
a  Christian  after  the  New  Testament  idea  was 
noted  as  an  infidel.  Thousands  of  men  have 
turned  away  from  religion  organized,  because 
they  were  just  and  humane,  because  they  loved 
God  and  they  loved  their  fellow  men. 

There  are  no  more  dungeons  now  in  civi 
lized  lands  where  men  are  imprisoned  for  the 
want  of  orthodoxy.  No  more  are  men  burned, 
no  more  are  men  exiled,  no  more  are  men 
fined  and  their  property  confiscated.  The 
punishment  has  changed  ;  but  it  has  not  been 
destroyed.  A  more  exquisite  torture  is  where 
you  take  a  man's  name  away  from  him,  and 
his  reputation,  and  make  one  sect  stand  ovej 
against  another  with  sneer  and  hissing,  where 
you  make  a  man  because  he  is  of  a  different 
Church  from  yourself  a  byword,  and  warn 
men  against  him.  The  difference  between 
you  and  him  may  be  on  a  point  of  abstract 
philosophy,  or  it  may  turn  on  ornaments,  or 
68 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

on  some  mediaeval  doctrine ;  it  is  no  excuse  to 
say  that  a  man  that  torments  and  punishes 
with  moral  intolerance  believes  it  is  necessary ; 
it  makes  no  difference  what  he  believes.  The 
man  without  the  spirit  of  Christ  may  believe 
what  he  pleases,  but  he  is  anti-Christ. 

The  condition  of  sects  is  very  rapidly  im 
proving.  I  have  no  objection  to  sects, 
denominations — have  just  as  many  as  you 
mind  to  have,  if  you  only  teach  them  to 
behave  themselves.  A  sect  is  under  the  same 
Christian  law  as  an  individual  is.  I  have  no 
right  to  go  and  see  what  time  my  neighbour 
has  breakfast,  though  it  differs  from  my  time. 
I  have  no  right  to  inspect  his  table  and  see 
what  he  eats  and  drinks  ;  whole  streets  may 
live  in  amity  and  fellowship  though  they  differ 
in  a  housekeeping  way;  they  have  perfect 
fellowship  in  secular  things,  but  jealousies  ap 
pear  in  all  the  elements  that  lie  higher  than 
that — in  the  realm  of  purity  and  love.  The 
better  day  is  advancing  rapidly,  for  so  large  is 
becoming  the  sphere  of  mutual  cooperative 
work  in  the  reforms  that  are  going  on,  that 
men  who  before  would  scarcely  look  at  each 
other  or  walk  on  the  same  side  of  the  street 
find  themselves  assembled  on  peace  or  temper 
ance  platforms,  and,  to  their  amazement,  when 

69 


Lectures  and  Orations 

they  see  a  brother  there,  and  look  him  over, 
he  has  neither  horns  nor  hoofs.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  bring  men  together.  The  effect  of 
organized  orthodoxy  in  days  gone  by  has 
been  to  keep  men  apart.  That  was  the  theory 
of  the  Old  Testament.  To  save  men  from 
idolatry  and  the  infectious  passions  that  be 
long  to  it,  they  were  shut  up  in  Palestine ; 
but  when  Christ  came,  regarding  the  moral 
forces  of  religion  as  sufficiently  strong  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  He  said  to  His  disciples : 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature."  And  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  is  one  that  spreads  itself,  accepts 
the  universality  of  humanity,  and  tends  to 
draw  men  to  each  other  in  creed  and  in 
church  and  in  life.  A  procedure  in  this  life 
that  disintegrates  and  scatters  moral  and 
honest  men  is  not  Christian.  By  and  by, 
when  all  the  good  that  is  in  all  the  churches 
shall  be  confluent,  and  when  men  shall  help 
each  other  by  all  that  they  agree  in ;  when 
the  things  in  which  men  agree — which  are  a* 
hundred  times  more  than  those  in  which  they 
disagree — shall  come  to  the  front  and  to  the 
top,  there  is  moral  power  enough  in  this 
world  to  make  an  advance  of  ages,  as  meas 
ured  by  the  past. 

70 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

The  fifth  topic  of  waste  and  burden  is  the 
Misfit  of  Men.  One  thing  is  very  certain, 
that  no  man  can  do  his  best  work  except 
along  the  line  of  his  strongest  faculties. 
Sometimes  men  do  not  know  what  is  the  line 
of  their  strongest  faculties,  and  very  often  no 
body  else  knows.  And  yet,  when  you  look 
at  society  and  the  adaptations  of  men,  this 
misfit  of  men  to  function  is  very  pitiful.  The 
best  strength  of  men  is  often  wasted.  There 
are  men  most  conscientious,  most  serenely 
sweet  and  pure  and  pious,  digging  and  delving 
away  in  the  pulpit  where  they  are  not  fitted 
to  be.  A  man  that  is  fitted  for  the  pulpit  is  a 
man  who  has  the  genius  of  moral  ideas,  and 
there  are  a  great  many  men  that  have  not  the 
genius  of  moral  ideas,  or  any  other,  and  yet 
they  are  in  the  pulpit. 

But  did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  of  all  the 
mysteries  in  this  world  the  greatest  are  not 
religious  mysteries,  not  the  Trinity,  not 
Atonement,  not  Decrees,  not  Election,  not 
any  of  these  things  ?  The  mystery  of  this 
world  is  how  men  were  created  and  shoved 
on  to  this  globe,  and  let  alone.  Whatever 
has  been  revealed  in  Old  or  New  Testament 
that  tells  of  man,  is  that  he  has  a  brain,  and 
that  is  a  seat  of  intelligence,  but  it  has  been 


Lectures  and  Orations 

only  within  my  memory  that  men  have  been 
taught  that  brains  were  of  any  use.  Hun 
dreds  of  men  do  not  believe  it  yet.  Ages 
went  away  before  a  man  knew  what  the  heart 
was  for,  or  what  it  was  doing.  Men  were  not 
told  in  the  early  day,  neither  by  writing  on 
the  heavens  nor  by  words  spoken  by  the 
prophet,  nor  was  it  made  known  by  any 
philosophy,  what  was  the  structure  of  their 
own  bodies,  and  the  relation  of  their  bodily 
condition  to  the  outward  world,  which  itself 
also  was  a  wilderness  of  ideas.  They  had  no 
idea  of  what  was  its  organization ;  they  were 
as  perfectly  helpless  as  a  child  in  the  nursery. 
It  was  through  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
years  that  men  groped  and  groped  and  died, 
when  medicine  for  their  ills  was  right  under 
their  feet  in  the  vegetable  world;  although 
there  was  the  remedy  no  voice  told  them  of  it. 
What  if  I  put  a  child  on  the  foot-board  of  a 
locomotive  and  say :  "  Run  this  Flying  Dutch 
man  five  hundred  miles,  and  it  will  be  death 
if  you  come  to  any  accident."  The  human 
body  is  a  more  complicated  piece  of  machinery 
than  any  engine ;  yet  for  ages  and  ages  until 
our  day  men  have  had  no  considerable  insight 
either  into  their  own  structure,  or  into  the 
relations  of  the  physical  world,  any  more  than 
72 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

into    the    highest   problems   that   belong    to 
morality  or  religion. 

And,  even  now,  when  a  young  man  of 
fifteen  or  sixteen  wants  to  know  what  he  is  fit 
for,  who  can  tell  him  ?  He  goes  to  the  doctor, 
who  sounds  his  heart  and  lungs,  and  says : 
"  You  are  healthy."  "  Well,  what  should  a 
healthy  young  man  do  ? "  "  Oh,  you  had 
better  go  to  the  schoolmaster."  The  school 
master  says  :  "  Are  you  advanced  in  mathe 
matics?  Do  you  know  something  about  history 
and  political  economy  ?  "  "  Yes  ;  what  would 
you  recommend  me  to  do  for  my  livelihood  ?  " 
"  Well,  anything  that  happens  to  come  to 
hand."  He  can  give  him  no  direction.  He 
goes  to  the  minister,  and  his  minister  says  to 
him  :  "  Have  you  been  baptized  ?  Do  you 
say  your  prayers  every  morning  and  night  ? 
Do  you  believe  in  the  creed  ?  "  "  Sir,  what  do 
you  recommend  me  to  do  as  my  life  busi 
ness  ? "  "  Well,  I  commend  you  to  Provi 
dence."  The  minister  is  as  ignorant  as  the 
youth  is — the  blind  leading  the  blind.  In  this 
condition  of  things,  is  it  strange  that  men 
should  take  to  their  professions  not  from  an 
elective  affinity,  not  because  they  feel  an  im 
pulse  to  run  along  the  lines  of  their  strongest 
faculties,  but  from  ambition,  or  from  the 
73 


Lectures  and  Orations 

promise  of  gain,  or  from  misguiding  love  ? 
Here  is  a  man,  a  bricklayer,  and  he  has  or 
ganized  industry  and  acquired  great  wealth, 
and  his  family  increases  amain.  His  eldest 
son  they  set  up  in  business,  and  he  has  in 
herited  from  his  father  business  tact.  The 
second  son  grows  up,  and  the  mother  says  : 
"  Well  now,  James  is  a  very  conscientious 
boy,  and  I  think  we  had  better  make  a  lawyer 
of  him."  They  do,  and  he  utterly  fails. 
They  say  :  "  William  ? — William  seems  to 
have  parts  and  has  an  interest  in  Nature :  I 
think  we  had  better  make  him  a  doctor.  That 
is  a  very  respectable  calling — we  will  make  a 
doctor  of  William.  As  to  Thomas,  he  is  not 
very  strong  in  body,  and  he  is  not  so  bright  in 
mind  as  the  other  children,  but  he  is  a  good 
boy,  he  would  make  a  good  minister : "  and  so 
the  parental  idea  is  not,  "  What  are  my  chil 
dren  fitted  for  ?  "  but,  "  What  is  respectable  ? 
What  will  give  them  standing  in  the  opinion 
of  their  fellow  men  ?  "  Men  are  perpetually 
going  to  things  that  are  above  their  capacity 
and  other  men  in  various  conditions  of  life  are 
toiling  in  spheres  that  are  below  their  capacity. 
What  if  a  farmer  should  harness  greyhounds 
together  and  plough  with  them  ?  What  if 
racing  on  the  track  was  to  be  made  by  oxen  ? 
74 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

An  ox  is  for  strength,  a  greyhound  for  speed ; 
but  men  are  greyhounds  where  they  ought  to 
be  oxen,  and  oxen  where  they  ought  to  be 
greyhounds,  all  their  lives.  How  should  they 
know  ?  By  their  blunders  mostly.  How 
often  most  admirable  men  of  ideas  are  mere 
copyists  !  They  generate  thought,  they  have 
latent  poetry  in  them,  they  have  latent 
inspirations ;  if  they  had  been  put  in  the  right 
avenues,  and  under  the  right  inspirations,  these 
men  would  have  been  great  thinkers,  and  their 
life  like  the  outpouring  of  music.  And  there 
are  men  on  the  judges' bench  holding  the  court 
who  would  have  made  good  and  excellent 
farmers,  and  not  a  few  men  in  the  blacksmith 
forge  and  in  the  stithy,  or  in  the  mines,  who 
would  have  been  excellent  citizens — influential 
in  all  moral  and  civic  affairs  ;  but  they  are  all 
mixed  up  like  a  keg  of  nails.  There  is  many 
a  labouring  man  that  would  have  made  a 
good  exhorter  and  a  good  preacher,  and  there 
are  many  preachers  that  evidently  were  not 
"  called."  When  God  calls  a  man  to  preach 
He  always  calls  an  audience  to  go  and  hear 
him.  There  is  many  a  man  thinks  he  has 
heard  a  call,  and  doubtless  he  did,  but  it  was 
somebody  else's  call.  I  think  I  do  not  err 
when  I  say  that  one-half  of  the  energy  of  life 
75 


Lectures  and  Orations 

is  badly  applied,  and  that,  too,  which  is  adapted 
for  the  superior  functions  of  human  life.  There 
has  got  to  be  a  great  light  arise  in  that  direc 
tion. 

Then  the  next  great  mischief,  which  you 
will  hear  gratefully,  because  we  always  like  to 
hear  the  faults  discussed  which  we  do  not  find 
in  ourselves,  is  Lying.  Craft  is  the  remainder 
of  the  animal  life  that  inheres  in  man,  for 
weakness  in  the  presence  of  strength  is  obliged 
to  resort  to  craft,  to  dig  under,  to  go  side 
ways.  Concealment  belongs  to  weakness  in 
the  presence  of  despotic  strength.  Slavery 
always  produces  lying  subjects,  and  in  the 
struggle  for  life  among  men  the  weak  seek  to 
make  up  their  deficiencies  of  strength  by  craft. 
And  it  is  not  always  the  weak  either  that  do  it, 
for  men  have  an  impression  that  truth,  pure 
and  unadulterated,  is  like  twenty-two  carat 
gold,  too  soft  to  wear  ordinarily,  and  that  it 
must  be  adulterated  to  about  eighteen  carat, 
and  then  it  is  tough  enough  to  go.  They  say 
a  judicious  mixture  between  a  truth  and  a  lie 
is  the  true  currency,  and  they  do  not  believe 
in  truth.  On  no  subject  in  this  world  is  there 
a  greater  lack  of  faith  than  in  truth.  You 
may  have  faith  in  the  Transfiguration,  and 
faith  in  immortality,  but  you  have  not  faith  in 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

the  safety  of  telling  the  truth  everywhere  and 
always. 

I  am  one  of  those  that  believe  the  truth 
ought  to  be  told  whenever  you  tell  anything. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  a  man  should  always 
tell  everything,  but  whatever  he  tells,  it  is 
necessary  that  that  should  always  be  truth.  A 
man  has  a  right  to  concealment.  The  soul 
has  no  more  business  to  go  stark  naked  down 
the  street  than  a  man  has  to  go  stark  naked  as 
regards  his  body.  It  is  the  preservation  of 
social  life  and  of  individual  life,  and  the  man  that 
has  not  a  great  silence  in  him,  a  great  reserve 
in  him,  is  not  half  a  man — he  is  a  babbler,  he 
leaks  at  the  mouth.  All  this  talk  about 
benevolent  lies,  white  lies,  and  the  customary 
lies  of  society — I  abhor  the  whole  raff  of  it. 

But  men  say,  "  Would  you  advise  a  physi 
cian  to  tell  a  man  that  he  is  going  straight 
down  to  death  ?  "  He  will  have  to  die,  and 
lying  will  not  prevent  it.  "  But  suppose  a  man 
were  to  come  to  your  house  for  protection, 
and  you  conceal  him  there,  and  the  soldiers 
are  right  after  him  in  times  of  civil  war,  and 
they  asked,  *  Has  So-and-so  been  here  ? ' 
would  you  say,  *  Yes,  he  was  here  ten  hours 
ago  ;  we  gave  him  a  glass  of  milk  ;  he  is  in  the 
forest,  go  after  him  and  get  him ; '  or  would 
77 


Lectures  and  Orations 

you  say, '  The  man  is  hid  in  the  house  now '  ?  " 
Men  say,  "  Would  you  betray  him  ?  Don't 
you  think  it  is  right  to  lie  for  benevolence  ?  " 
No,  I  do  not.  "  Would  you  tell  the  truth  to 
a  robber,  when  the  life  of  your  children  de 
pended  upon  it  ?  "  Probably  not ;  but  that  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  principle.  I  may  be 
weak  enough  to  tell  a  lie ;  but  that  does  not 
justify  a  lie,  nor  me  in  telling  it ;  and  when 
you  appeal  to  the  weakness  of  a  man  to  justify 
a  lie,  you  do  not  advance  in  any  way  towards 
the  truth.  I  hold  that  the  hardest  thing  in 
this  world  is  for  a  man  habitually  to  tell  the 
truth.  A  man  who  tells  the  truth  is  like  a 
man  who  lives  in  a  glass  house,  and  everybody 
that  goes  by  sees  what  he  is  doing  there.  A 
man  that  tells  the  truth  has  to  be  very  sym 
metrical  in  his  character;  he  has  got  to  be 
really  a  good  man,  and  righteous,  or  he  cannot 
afford  to  tell  the  truth. 

Now  the  political  economy  of  the  matter  is 
this,  that  lying  disintegrates  society.  Men  are 
united  together  in  the  great  interests  of  human 
life  by  trust.  On  an  average  they  believe 
when  a  man  says  a  thing ;  when  he  says  he 
has  done  a  thing  they  take  it  for  granted.  We 
could  not  live  if  we  could  not  believe  in  men. 
"  Willram,  have  you  deposited  those  checks  in 

78 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

the  bank  ?  "  «  Yes,  sir,  I  have."  Maybe  he 
has,  maybe  he  has  not ;  I  will  go  round  to 
the  bank  and  see.  "  Has  my  clerk  deposited 
checks  for  $  i  ,000  in  the  bank  to-day  ?  "  •«  Yes," 
says  the  teller,  "  he  has."  But  there  may 
be  a  collusion  between  him  and  some  of  the 
bank  officers ;  I  will  go  inside  and  see.  "  Is 
your  teller  to  be  believed  when  he  says  my 
clerk  has  deposited  $1,000?"  If  a  man  had 
to  do  all  that  circumlocution  in  his  business  he 
would  not  have  time  to  do  anything  else.  We 
cannot  get  organized,  combined  strength  un 
less  a  man  is  trusted,  and  the  moment  a  man 
is  known  not  to  be  trusted  there  begins  the 
process  of  separation.  The  progress  of  all  hu 
man  life  begins  in  the  belief  that  men  substan 
tially  tell  the  truth. 

Men  say  society  is  full  of  lies.  Yes,  it  is 
full  of  lies.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  lying  in 
all  sorts  of  business  ;  but  the  philosophy  of 
that  is  at  once  exposed  as  false  in  this,  that  if 
lying  were  more  common  than  speaking  the 
truth,  society  would  be  like  a  heap  of  sand,  it 
would  fall  apart.  The  cohesion  is  the  belief  in 
men's  veracity.  The  fact  is  that  a  lie  has  to 
have  a  cutting  edge  of  truth  or  it  would  not 
be  worth  anything.  It  is  the  truth  that  works 
a  lie  into  anything  like  victory.  On  the  street, 
79 


Lectures  and  Orations 

in  the  shop,  in  the  manufactory,  on  the  ship, 
at  home  and  abroad,  the  implication  is  that  a 
man  is  to  be  relied  upon  for  his  word  or  bond, 
and  if  you  take  that  away  society  goes  back 
into  original  elements.  Everything  that  tends 
to  separate  the  confidence  of  man  in  man  im 
pedes  business,  and  makes  it  more  and  more 
laborious.  Truthfulness  is  general  in  society ; 
but  lying  is  too  often  used.  The  higher  the 
proportion  of  truthfulness,  the  stronger  the 
community.  The  permanent  prosperity  of 
society  is  to  be  derived  not  from  the  lower, 
basilar  faculties  but  from  the  coronal  qualities. 
All  those  influences,  therefore,  that  tend  to 
make  the  violation  of  a  man's  word  and  pledge 
easy  ought  to  be  swept  out  of  society. 

Then  there  is  the  false  notion  that  men  are 
more  likely  to  tell  the  truth  under  oath  than 
they  are  without  an  oath.  A  man  that  will 
not  tell  the  truth  without  an  oath  won't  tell  the 
truth  with  an  oath.  You  cannot  make  a 
man  honest  by  machinery.  There  has  got  to 
be  established  in  him  an  automatic  honesty, 
an  honest  individuality.  Therefore,  I  do  not 
believe  in  the  oaths  of  our  courts.  In  the  old 
days  of  superstition,  men  believed  that  by  a 
reference  to  arms  on  the  battle-field  God  would 
always  decide  for  the  right.  That  has  been 
80 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

exploded,  and  duels  and  conflicts  for  the  sake 
of  truth  are  all  gone  into  the  lumber-room  of 
heathendom.  And  we  may  as  well  drop  the 
old  superstition  with  regard  to  a  man  standing 
before  a  mysterious  Deity,  and  swearing  on 
the  penalty  of  his  soul,  when  he  did  not  be 
lieve  he  had  a  soul,  and  did  not  believe  there 
was  much  penalty.  And  see  how  oaths  have 
passed  into  disrepute  by  the  mode  of  prescrib 
ing  them.  Here  is  an  honest,  simple-hearted 
man,  who  has  never  been  in  a  court  or  through 
a  trial;  he  comes  in  rather  tremulous,  and 
goes  into  the  witness  box.  See  how  the  clerk 
administers  the  oath  to  him.  He  holds  out 
the  Bible  as  if  there  was  some  emanation  from 
the  Bible  that  would  make  the  man  tell  truth. 
But  some  witnesses  would  not  swear  and  stick 
to  it  on  a  Bible  merely ;  the  Bible  must  have 
a  cross  on  it ;  that  gives  it  extra  sanctity.  Then 
he  is  made  to  kiss  it.  Was  there  ever  any 
superstition  more  abject  than  that  ?  Then  the 
clerk  gets  up  and  says  to  the  man  who  is  wait 
ing  to  be  honest :  "  In  the  case  of  John  Doe 
vs.  Richard  Roe  you  swear — mumble,  mumble, 
mumble,  mumble."  It  gradually  dawns  on  him 
that  he  is  sworn  to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole 
truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  Then  the 
lawyers  on  each  side  are  determined  he  shall 
81 


Lectures  and  Orations 

not  tell  the  truth,  and  that  he  shall  lie,  and 
when  he  goes  off  the  stand  he  does  not  know 
whether  he  is  on  his  head  or  his  feet.  That 
is  called  sifting  the  evidence. 

I  do  not  believe  in  Custom  House  oaths.  I 
do  not  believe  in  Custom  Houses  anyhow.  I 
think  they  are  manufactories  of  lies.  I  have 
got  to  swear  when  I  go  back — I  have  felt  like 
it  many  times,  but  I  have  got  to  do  it — that  I 
have  nothing  in  my  trunks  or  about  me  con 
trary  to  the  customs  laws  of  my  country.  I 
know  nothing  about  the  customs  laws  of  my 
country  ;  I  do  not  know  whether  they  admit  a 
jack-knife.  I  am  wearing  all  new  clothes,  so  I 
can  say  I  have  nothing  but  what  I  wear.  It 
is  inherent  in  the  oath  that  it  is  morally  weak. 
Every  man  who  has  to  do  with  the  Custom 
House  has  a  clerk  who  swears  for  the  firm,  who 
goes  down  to  the  Custom  House,  and  does  the 
swearing  there.  These  Custom  House  oaths 
are  simply  ridiculous. 

But  there  is  another  kind  of  oath  though  not 
quite  so  frequent  and  perhaps  not  so  demor 
alizing,  yet  hardly  less  disgraceful,  when  a 
green  young  man  fresh  from  the  college  or  the 
seminary,  who  has  had  his  theology  put  into 
him  as  sausages  are  filled,  goes  before  the 
council,  or  the  conference,  or  the  convention, 
82 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

or  whatever  may  be  the  machine,  and  takes 
oath  that  he  will  preach  the  doctrines  of  the 
confession,  or  of  the  creed  as  they  have  been 
interpreted  by  his  Church.  For  a  year  or  two 
he  does  not  know  anything  better  than  to  go 
on  doing  it ;  but,  by  and  by,  what  with  books 
and  collateral  light,  and  intercourse  with  men, 
and  the  progress  of  science,  the  man  begins 
to  have  wider  thoughts,  and  very  soon  he  sees 
that  he  cannot  preach  on  that  doctrine,  so  he 
holds  his  tongue  about  it.  And  there  begins 
to  rise  from  the  horizon  to  him  the  bright  and 
morning  star — yea,  it  may  be  the  very  Sun  of 
Righteousness ;  but  he  has  taken  an  oath  that 
he  will  not  preach  anything  but  what  is  in  the 
book,  as  if  a  book  ever  contained  the  Lord 
God  Almighty  and  all  creation  !  What  does 
he  do  ?  He  compromises  and  holds  his 
tongue,  or  else  the  conditions  of  fellowship  are 
such  that  he  sacrifices  everything  that  is  dear 
to  a  man.  All  his  roots  in  the  past  and  all 
social  affections  bind  him  to  this  particular 
communion ;  but  for  the  sake  of  truth  he 
suffers  himself  to  be  expatriated  and  cast  out, 
and  the  world  says  :  "  If  a  man  belongs  to 
that  denomination  he  ought  to  teach  what  the 
denomination  believes  or  leave  it ;  "  as  if  there 
was  nothing  else  than  getting  a  salary,  as  if  a 

83 


Lectures  and  Orations 

man  did  not  feel  that  the  truth  in  his  hands 
was  the  test  of  his  allegiance  to  Almighty  God. 
Ordination  oaths  lay  men's  consciences  under 
bondage,  for  I  hold,  and  the  world  will  yet 
agree  to  it,  that  a  godly  life  is  orthodox,  and 
no  orthodoxy  that  does  not  carry  love  behind 
it  is  orthodox. 

I  pass  on  to  the  next  waste,  and  I  shall 
barely  mention  it  and  go  forward,  and  that  is 
Drunkenness.  I  specify  this  because  civiliza 
tion  has  developed  the  nerve-forces  of  man 
kind,  and  there  is  a  physiological  law  now  af 
firmed  by  scientific  men,  that  a  regulated 
stimulus  prevents  the  waste  of  the  nerve-mat 
ter  which  performs  the  function  of  life;  that 
opium,  hashish,  brandy,  alcoholic  stimulants 
of  every  kind,  and  coffee  and  tea  are,  in  mod 
eration,  nerve-conservators,  and  that  the  danger 
lies  not  so  much  in  the  article,  as  in  the  un 
conscious  increase  until  the  stimulants  narco 
tize  the  nerve.  That  is  the  philosophy  that, 
as  civilization  advances,  men  in  the  higher 
walks  of  life  put  forward.  If  a  man  can  learn 
to  love  tobacco  there  is  nothing  on  God's  earth 
he  cannot  learn  to  love.  Men  are  constantly 
seeking  to  reinforce  nature  in  proportion  as 
they  are  vigorous ;  but  others  say  it  is  all 
wrong,  that  cold  water  and  plain  bread  are 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

better.  Every  time  you  think  or  do  anything, 
a  certain  portion  of  the  nerve  is  wasted  in  do 
ing  it;  and  if  there  be  something  that  makes 
the  nerve  tougher  in  use,  that  will  explain  the 
almost  universal  use  of  stimulants.  What  we 
want  to  learn,  if  this  be  true,  is  to  teach  young 
men  and  old  men  where  the  lines  of  safety  be. 
A  man  may  be  brought  up  in  the  rule  of  ab 
stinence,  as  I  was  ;  until  I  was  sixty  years  of 
age  I  never  knew  the  taste  of  beer  or  of  stim 
ulants.  Since  I  was  sixty-five  I  have  known 
something  more — it  is  never  too  late  to  learn  ! 
I  am  none  the  less  a  temperance  man,  for  all 
that.  I  look  upon  the  use  of  intoxicants 
and  stimulants  by  young  men,  or  men  in 
health,  as  a  waste,  as  well  as  a  danger  and  a 
temptation. 

I  would  seek,  not,  however,  by  legislative 
prohibition,  but  by  moral  persuasion,  to  bring 
every  man  into  a  sound  principle  in  regard  to 
self-control  in  what  he  eats  and  drinks,  for  I 
do  not  believe  there  is  any  governing  force 
that  is  equal  to  self-government,  and  it  is  self- 
government  we  should  seek  in  every  form  of 
life.  How  is  it  that  a  young  man  goes  out  in 
society  ?  He  has  been  a  tee-totaller  at  home, 
but  he  goes  out  into  fashionable  society  ;  they 
set  before  him  wines  ;  little  by  little  he  begins 
85 


Lectures  and  Orations 

to  drink.  There  is  a  great  art  in  drinking, 
and  a  bon  vivant  knows  what  it  is,  and  he  can 
say,  ••  Young  man,  if  you  are  going  to  take 
any  of  this  kind,  let  me  tell  you  how  and 
when ;  "  but  we  do  not  dare  put  a  young  man 
to  such  instruction,  so  we  let  him  go  on  and 
guzzle  according  to  his  own  fancy.  What  we 
want  to  get  is  physiological  knowledge  and 
hygienic  knowledge  as  to  the  proper  use  of 
stimulants.  But  men  drink  because  they  have 
an  inherited  appetite  for  drink ;  because  they 
want  to  do  two  days'  work  in  one  ;  because 
they  are  of  too  slow  and  sluggish  a  tempera 
ment,  and  they  want  to  wake  up  their  slow 
forces  and  the  inspiration  of  their  mind ;  or 
they  drink  because  they  are  in  good  fellow 
ship.  There  are  a  variety  of  reasons.  The 
result  is,  drunkenness  spreads  in  all  our  com 
munities.  The  moment  a  man  has  gone  be 
yond  the  line  of  temperance  he  has  lost  his 
place  as  a  producer  in  society  and  is  a  waste 
and  a  burden.  Every  church  and  every  legis 
lation  and  every  form  of  public  sentiment 
should  limit  the  use  of  intoxicants  and  teach 
men  to  be  temperate,  for  there  is  no  evil  that 
is  committing  so  much  crime;  there  is  no 
evil  that  so  populates  the  poorhouse,  the  jail, 
the  gallows ;  there  is  no  evil  that  takes  away 
86 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

so  much  comfort  from  the  home  and  makes 
so  much  misery  therein ;  there  is  no  one 
evil  under  the  sun  that  is  so  infernal  as  that 
of  drunkenness,  for  all  other  evils  follow  in 
its  wake. 

The  last  of  the  burdens  of  society  that  I 
would  mention  is  War.  This  is  simply  ani 
malism.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say  that 
defensive  wars,  or  other  wars,  are  always  mor 
ally  wrong.  As  the  world  is  constituted, 
physical  force  is  often  quite  necessary.  You 
cannot  drive  the  team  without  some  goad,  or 
some  whip,  or  some  rein,  or  some  harness. 
The  animal  must  be  controlled  by  animal 
forces,  for  there  is  nothing  else  influences  it, 
and  men  are  yet  animals  largely.  When  there 
are  insurrections,  and  riots,  and  plunderings 
of  property,  and  aggressions  upon  the  peace  and 
life  of  other  men,  there  must  be  an  arm  stronger 
than  their  violence  to  hold  them  in.  The 
theory  that  we  are  never  to  be  allowed  to  use 
force  would  forbid  police  anywhere;  and  to 
forbid  the  hand  of  strength  for  the  protection 
of  the  community  is  to  give  a  premium  to 
violence  and  lawlessness.  But  look  at  the 
history  of  the  wars.  The  earth  is  red  with 
blood.  Look  at  the  symbol  of  Great  Britain — 
a  lion;  look  at  the  symbol  of  America — an 


Lectures  and  Orations 

eagle;  look  at  other  symbols  of  nations — 
leopards.  Men  have  rightly  considered  that 
the  symbol  that  typifies  the  national  life 
should  be  borrowed  from  animal  violence. 

I  cannot  say  that  the  history  of  Great 
Britain  would  justify  me  in  praising  her  for 
peace  principles.  I  will  admit  that  the  tend 
ency  of  British  literature,  and  British  re 
ligion  and  civility  and  polity,  when  men  have 
been  subdued,  is  benign,  and  develops  a 
higher  nationality  everywhere,  and  that  on 
her  colonies  and  possessions  around  the  earth, 
Britain  has  bestowed  an  equitable  government 
and  a  procedure  which  is  to  the  advantage 
of  weak  and  dependent  nations.  But  how 
came  they  weak  and  dependent  ? 

In  our  own  land  I  thank  God  we  have  been 
saved  from  foreign  war,  partly  by  our  weak 
ness,  partly  by  the  nature  of  our  institutions, 
partly  by  our  distance  and  exemption  from 
the  intercourse  of  nations ;  but  in  the  pursuit 
of  great  principles  we  have  gone  through  the 
baptism  of  blood,  and  we  have  come  out  with* 
a  national  debt  of  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars,  and  every  dollar  of  it  represents  the 
industry  of  men.  This  counts  nothing  of  the 
waste  by  the  burning  of  dwellings,  the  burn 
ing  of  crops,  the  burning  of  fences,  the  up- 
88 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

setting  of  society  everywhere.  The  whole 
South  was  made  absolutely  bankrupt  by  the 
war  in  which  she  asserted  a  false  principle. 
I  hold  that  there  was  never  a  people  on  earth 
more  sincere  and  honest  in  their  conflict  than 
our  Southern  brethren  ;  I  hold  that  they  gave 
their  last  dollar,  their  last  breath,  and  when 
they  gave  up  there  was  nothing  more  with 
which  to  make  resistance.  I  bear  witness 
to  them  that  as  soon  as  they  gave  up  they 
gave  up  thoroughly,  and  came  back  into  the 
Union,  and  are  now  inspired  with  Union 
principles  as  sincere  as  any  in  the  North. 
But  this  terrible  internecine  struggle  was  a 
waste  of  a  million  of  men.  At  Gettysburg 
40,000  men  lay  dead,  wounded,  or  dying  on 
both  sides. 

Can  anything  be  considered  more  horrible 
than  the  history  of  European  wars  ?  The 
wranglings  of  lions  and  tigers  in  the  wilder 
ness,  the  fights  of  the  bear,  or  the  cruelties  of 
the  shark  that  kill  not  to  consume,  but  for 
savage  destructiveness — human  nature  has  been 
more  cruel  than  all  the  animal  creation.  The 
days  are  coming,  I  think,  when  the  best  men 
will  not  be  called  out  for  standing  armies. 
To-day  Europe  is  armed  to  the  teeth  ;  indeed, 
the  whole  continent  is  a  camp.  All  Germany 
89 


Lectures  and  Orations 

• — it  is  not  an  army  that  they  raise ;  it  is  an 
army  that  they  are  :  and  substantially  that  is 
the  condition  of  France ;  and  Italy,  newly 
brought  into  the  communion  of  saints  oi"  the 
nations,  is  still  weighing  down  her  population 
by  the  expenses  for  the  army  and  navy.  There 
is  not  a  nation  except  Switzerland  that  dare 
lay  down  its  arms.  Yet  they  are  all  Chris 
tian  nations.  They  would  all  be  mortally  of 
fended  if  you  said  they  were  not  members  of 
the  community  of  the  Faith.  Yet  here  comes 
in  Christ's  revelation  of  God's  love,  that  rather 
than  men  should  die  He  gave  His  only  begot 
ten  Son  to  save  them.  Here  comes  that  grand 
revelation  of  the  eternities,  that  the  test  of 
love  is  how  much  men  will  suffer  for  others. 
Yet  men  are  fighting  for  the  love,  slaughter 
ing  men  for  the  peace  of  society,  for  the  sake 
of  obtaining  the  reign  of  the  empire  of  love ! 
Was  there  ever  such  a  spectacle  presented  to 
mankind  ? 

The  general  drift  of  many  of  you  will  be  to 
say  that  I  have  given  such  a  bad  picture  of  the 
actual  goings  on  of  society  that  it  discourages 
you.  No.  On  the  contrary,  I  think  the  world 
never  was  so  much  advanced  as  it  is  to-day. 
I  think  that  it  is  the  sensibility  and  consequence 
of  this  advance  that  makes  the  picture  so  vivid 
90 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

and  so  repulsive  to  you.  Indeed,  there  is  more 
of  thought  for  the  common  people,  for  their 
external  life,  for  their  instruction,  a  larger  con 
ception  of  their  rights,  and  more  and  more  in 
stitutions  that  tend  to  fortify  and  extend  the 
rights  of  the  mass  of  mankind  than  ever  before. 
I  think  there  is  coming  on  gradually  a  time 
when  war  itself  will  begin  to  be  throttled.  In 
that  day  may  America  be  found  leading,  for 
the  inducements  and  temptations  to  us  are  a 
thousandfold  less  than  to  any  nation  in  Europe  ; 
and  with  us,  and  behind  us — for  there  is  no 
backing  that  we  could  covet  like  that  of  our 
mother  country,  speaking  our  language,  from 
whose  literature  we  learned,  from  whose  re 
ligion  we  received  inspiration,  from  whose 
legislation  and  sense  of  justice  has  sprung  all 
that  there  is  on  the  Western  hemisphere — may 
Great  Britain  stand,  and  back  America  up  in 
every  step  that  she  should  take  to  make  justice 
and  equity  comport  with  peace,  and  destroy 
war  everywhere ! 

Professor  Guyot  says  that  there  are  three 
periods  in  the  growth  of  a  plant :  the  first  is  the 
longest  and  the  most  obscure — growth  by  the 
root ;  the  second  period  is  much  accelerated — 
growth  by  the  stem ;  and  the  third  and  fastest 
of  all  is  the  growth  by  the  flower  and  the 
91 


Lectures  and  Orations 

fruit.  I  take  it,  the  civilized  part  of  the 
world  has  been  growing  by  the  root  through 
the  centuries ;  and  that  we  have  come  unto  a 
time  when  the  world  is  growing  by  the  stem 
faster  and  faster;  but  that  just  before  us  in  our 
children's  day,  and  maybe  in  our  own,  society 
will  burst  out  into  blossom  and  begin  to  bear 
the  fruits  of  righteousness  as  we  have  never 
seen  it  do  in  days  that  are  gone. 

Take  no  counsel,  then,  of  crouching  fear, 
still  less  of  misanthropic  cowardice.  Take 
courage  of  this :  there  is  a  God,  and  He  has 
time  enough,  and  is  not  obliged,  as  man  is,  to 
run  quickly  through  the  offices  of  the  building 
of  His  providence.  He  can  wait  through  the 
ages,  and  He  can  wait  through  the  junctures  ; 
but  He  is  building,  He  is  building,  and  that 
which  His  hand  undertakes  no  man  may  long 
hinder.  There  shall  be  no  man  that  shall  have 
need  to  say  to  his  brother,  "  Know  the 
Lord  !  "  for  all  men  shall  know  Him,  from  the 
least  unto  the  greatest.  I  shall  behold  Him, 
not  here  but  there,  in  the  midst  of  the  rejoic 
ing  host;  I  shall  understand  that  which  to-day 
is  an  enigma,  and  I  shall  see  the  accomplish 
ment  of  that  in  the  midst  of  which  I  have 
striven,  for  which  tears  have  been  shed  in  ocean 
streams,  for  which  blood  has  flowed  through 
92 


The  Wastes  and  Burdens  of  Society 

the  race  and  through  all  time.  The  emancipa 
tion  of  man  from  his  animal  conditions  shall  be 
achieved  before  the  race  dies  from  off  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall 
fill  the  earth  as  the  waters  fill  the  sea. 


93 


Ill 


THE  REIGN  OF  THE  COMMON 
PEOPLE 

IT  has  been  the  effect  of  modern  investiga 
tion  to  throw  light  without  illumination  upon 
the  most  interesting  period  of  human  history. 
When  the  old  chronology  prevailed,  and  it  was 
thought  that  this  world  was  built  about  six 
thousand  years  ago,  men  had  of  necessity  one 
way  of  looking  at  things ;  but  now  it  is  agreed 
upon  all  hands  that  we  cannot  count  the 
chronology  of  this  world  by  thousands,  more 
likely  by  millions  of  years.  Nor  was  the  system 
of  immediation  in  creation,  which  prevailed  at 
the  time,  favourable  to  the  discovery  of  truth. 
God  who  dwells  in  eternity  has  time  enough  to 
build  worlds  which  require  millions  of  years, 
and  whatever  may  be  the  cause  of  the  origin  of 
the  human  race,  and  I  have  my  opinion  on 
that  subject  (confidential,  however !),  I  think  it 
may  be  said  that  the  earliest  appearance  of  man 
upon  earth  was  in  the  savage  condition.  He 
began  as  low  down  as  he  could  and  be  a  man 
rather  than  an  animal.  This  question  of  pro- 
94 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

found  interest  is  one  that  can  probably  never 
be  answered  except  by  guess, — and  guess  is 
not  philosophy  altogether. 

How  did  man  emerge  from  that  savage 
condition  ?  There  were  then  no  schools,  no 
churches,  no  prophets,  no  priests,  no  books, 
presses — nothing;  wild  tribes  in  the  wild 
wilderness,  how  did  they  come  towards 
civilization  ?  You  say  that  the  first  industries 
were  those  that  supplied  appetite — food, 
shelter,  clothing.  That  is,  doubtless,  true, 
although  we  only  infer  it ;  but  how  did  the 
brain  which  is  the  organ  of  the  man  begin  to 
unfold,  not  the  simple  knowledge  that  lay 
close  in  the  neighbourhood  of  every  man,  but 
how  did  it  come  to  build  institutions,  found 
communities,  and  develop  them,  till  now  the 
human  race  in  civilized  countries  are  as  far  re 
moved  from  their  ancestors  as  their  ancestors 
were  from  the  animals  below  them  ?  It  is  on 
this  broad  field  that  light  falls,  but  not  illumi 
nation.  But  later  down,  supposing  that  indus 
tries  were  educators,  supposing  that  men  were 
educated  by  war  itself,  by  combinations  re 
quiring  skill  and  leadership,  by  ten  thousand 
forms  of  growing  social  life,  by  the  love  of 
property,  the  instinct  that  is  fundamental  to 
human  nature — suppose  that  all  this  indirectly 
95 


Lectures  and  Orations 

evolved  the  intelligence  of  the  human  family, 
how  do  we  come  at  length  to  the  period  in 
which  the  unfolding  of  the  hidden  powers  of 
the  human  soul  became  an  object  of  direct 
instruction  ? 

The  earliest  attempt  to  develop  men,  on 
purpose,  was  in  Egypt,  so  far  as  we  know. 
The  Egyptian  school  has  in  it  all  the  marks  of 
antiquity  and  of  primitive  development,  for  it 
was  limited  in  the  numbers  admitted  and  in 
the  topics  taught.  Only  the  royal  family 
could  go  to  the  schools  of  Egypt.  That  in 
cluded,  of  course,  the  priesthood  ;  and,  putting 
aside  some  slight  mathematical  teaching,  it  is 
probable  that  mysteries  and  superstitions  were 
the  whole  subjects  taught — and  that  mainly 
to  teach  the  higher  class  how  to  be  hierarchs 
or  rulers.  When  we  cross  over  the  sea  to 
Greece,  at  a  period  much  later,  though  how 
much  we  know  not,  we  find  that  schools  had 
developed,  and  that  the  idea  of  making  more 
of  men  than  natural  law  or  the  casual  in 
fluences  of  human  society  make  of  them — the" 
attempt  directly  to  train  intelligence  and  to 
produce  knowledge  was  farther  advanced,  for 
anybody  could  go  to  a  Greek  school  that  had 
the  means  to  pay — anybody  but  slaves  and 
women ;  they  trained  very  near  together  in 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

antiquity,  and  they  are  not  quite  far  enough 
apart  yet.  But  I  am  compelled  to  correct 
myself  when  I  say  that  women  were  not 
privileged  ;  they  were.  It  is  probable  that  in 
no  period  of  human  history  has  more  pains 
been  taken  with  the  education  of  women  than 
was  taken  in  Greece  ;  in  all  their  accomplish 
ments,  in  learning,  in  music,  in  the  dance,  in 
poetry,  in  literature,  in  history,  in  philosophy, 
even  in  statesmanship,  women  were  very 
highly  educated — provided  they  were  to  live 
the  lives  of  courtesans.  The  fact  is  simply 
astounding  that  in  the  age  of  Pericles  intel 
ligence  and  accomplishments  were  associated 
with  impudicity,  and  were  the  signs  of  it,  and 
that  ignorance  and  modesty  were  associated 
ideas.  If  a  woman  would  have  the  credit  of 
purity  and  uprightness  in  social  relations  she 
must  be  the  drudge  of  the  household,  and  if 
any  woman  appeared,  radiant  in  personal 
beauty  and  accomplished,  fitted  for  conversa 
tion  with  statesmen  and  philosophers,  it  was 
taken  for  granted  that  she  was  accessible. 

We  have  a  side-light  thrown  on  this  subject 
in  the  New  Testament,  not  well  understood 
hitherto.  That  noble  old  Jewish  book,  the 
Bible,  reveals  a  higher  station  to  womanhood 
in  the  ancient  Israelitish  days  than  in  any 
97 


Lectures  and  Orations 

other  Oriental  land,  and  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  end  of  it  there  is 
no  limitation  of  a  woman's  rights,  her  func 
tions  and  her  position.  She  actually  was 
public  in  the  sense  of  honour  and  function ; 
she  went  with  unveiled  face  if  she  pleased ; 
she  partook  of  religious  services  and  led 
them  ;  she  was  a  judge,  she  was  even  a  leader 
of  armies ;  and  you  shall  not  find,  either  in 
the  Old  Testament  or  in  the  New,  one  word 
that  limits  the  position  of  a  woman  till  you 
come  to  the  Apostle's  writings  about  Grecian 
women,  for  only  in  Corinthians  and  in  the 
writings  of  Paul  to  Timothy,  who  was  the 
Bishop  of  the  Greek  Churches  in  Asia  Minor, 
do  you  find  any  limitation  made.  Knowing 
full  well  what  this  public  sentiment  was  at  that 
time,  Paul  said  :  "  Suffer  not  a  woman  to  teach 
in  your  assemblies ;  let  your  women  keep 
silence."  Why?  because  all,  in  that  corrupt 
public  sentiment,  looking  upon  intelligent 
teachers  in  the  Christian  Church,  would  have 
gone  away  and  said :  "  This  is  done  of  licen 
tiousness,  women  are  teaching;"  and  in  a 
public  sentiment  that  associated  intelligence 
and  immorality  it  is  not  strange  that  pruden- 
tially  and  temporarily,  women  were  restrained. 
But  that  has  all  gone;  woman  has  risen; 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

not  only  in  intelligence,  she  is  the  universal 
teacher,  not  alone  in  the  household  but  in  the 
school ;  not  alone  in  common  schools  but  in 
every  grade ;  till  she  has  attained  professor 
ships  in  universities  and  even  presidency  in 
women's  colleges — at  least  in  our  land.  She 
is  the  right  hand  of  the  charities  of  the 
Church ;  she  walks  unblushing  with  an  un 
veiled  face  where  men  do  walk;  and  she  is 
not  only  permitted  in  the  great  orthodox 
churches  of  New  England  to  speak  in  meet 
ing,  but  when  they  send  her  abroad,  ordained 
to  teach  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen,  there  she 
is  permitted  to  preach.  When  they  come 
home  women  may  still  teach  in  a  hall,  but  not 
often  in  a  church,  for  dear  old  men  there  are 
yet  so  conservative  that  they  are  reading 
through  golden  spectacles  their  Bibles,  and 
saying :  "  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  preach." 

We  hardly  can  trace  the  unfolding  of  hu 
man  intelligence  after  it  plunged  into  that  twi 
light  or  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Then 
we  begin  to  find  intelligence  developed  through 
mechanical  guilds,  and  in  various  ways  of 
commerce ;  schools,  such  as  we  now  under 
stand  schools  to  be,  are  very  imperfectly 
traced  out  in  the  Middle  Ages.  But  when 
that  new  impulse  came  to  the  moral  nature, 
99 


Lectures  and  Orations 

and  the  civil  nature,  and  the  intellectual  and 
philosophical  nature,  to  art,  literature,  to  learn 
ing — when  the  Reformation  came,  whose  scope 
was  not  ecclesiastical  alone  by  any  means — it 
was  a  resurrection  of  the  human  intelligence 
throughout  its  whole  vast  domain — schools  be 
gan  to  appear  to  be,  as  John  Milton  says, 

Raked  embers  out  of  the  ashes  of  the  past, 

and  they  began  to  glow  again.  And  from 
that  time  on,  when  men  made  efforts  to  de 
velop  by  actual  teaching,  human  intelligence 
grows  broader,  brighter  and  more  effectual 
down  to  our  present  time  ;  and  to-day  in  the 
principal  nations  of  Europe  education  is  com 
pulsory,  the  education  not  of  favoured  classes, 
not  of  the  children  of  the  wealthy,  not  of  those 
that  have  inherited  genius,  but  the  children  of 
the  common  people.  It  is  held  that  it  is  un 
safe  for  a  state  to  raise  ignorant  men.  Ig 
norant  men  are  like  bombs,  which  are  a  great 
deal  better  to  be  shot  into  an  enemy's  camp 
than  to  be  kept  at  home,  for  where  an  ignorant 
man  goes  off  he  scatters  desolation.  More 
over,  an  ignorant  man  is  an  animal,  and  the 
stronger  his  passions  and  the  feebler  his  con 
science  and  intellect,  the  more  dangerous  he  is. 
Therefore,  for  the  sake  of  the  commonwealth, 
100 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

modern  legislators  wisely,  whether  they  guide 
republican  institutions  or  monarchical  institu 
tions  or  aristocratical  institutions,  have  at  last 
joined  hands  on  one  thing — that  it  is  best  to 
educate  the  people's  children,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest  everywhere. 

And  what,  in  connection  with  various  other 
general  causes,  has  been  the  result  of  this  un 
folding  of  intelligence  among  the  common 
people  ?  It  has  not  yet  gone  down  to  the  bot 
tom  ;  there  is  a  stratum  of  undeveloped  intel 
ligence  among  the  nations,  certainly;  I  am  not 
speaking  now  of  the  residuum  that  falls  down 
from  the  top  like  the  slime  of  the  ocean,  but 
of  those  who  are  reasonable  and  honest  and 
virtuous  and  useful.  It  may  be  said  that,  as 
the  sun  touches  the  tops  of  the  mountains  first 
and  works  its  way  downward  through  the  val 
ley  later  and  later  in  the  day,  so  there  is  very 
much  to  be  done  yet  to  bear  knowledge  and 
intelligence,  which  is  better  than  knowledge, 
to  the  lowest  classes  of  the  common  people. 
But  even  in  this  condition,  what  has  been  the 
result  in  Europe  of  the  education  of  the  com 
mon  people  ?  All  those  heavings,  all  those 
threatened  revolutions,  all  those  civil  and  com 
mercial  developments  that  are  like  the  waves 
of  the  sea,  are  springing  from  the  fact  that  God 
101 


Lectures  and  Orations 

in  His  providence  has  thrown  light  and  intel 
ligence  upon  the  great  undermass  of  society  • 
and  the  underparts  of  society,  less  fortunate  in 
every  respect  than  those  that  are  advanced, 
are  seeking  room  to  develop  themselves  ;  they 
are  seeking  to  go  up,  and  no  road  has  been 
found  along  which  they  can  travel  far  as  yet. 
I  do  not  believe  in  Nihilism  in  Russia,  but  if  I 
had  been  born  and  brought  up  there  and  had 
felt  the  heel  on  my  neck,  I  would  have  been  a 
Nihilist.  I  am  poor  stuff  to  make  an  obedient 
slave  out  of.  Nevertheless,  they  are  like  blind 
men  trying  to  find  their  way  into  the  open  air, 
and  if  they  stumble  or  go  into  wrong  depart 
ments,  are  they  to  be  derided  and  cursed  ? 
Because  they  are  seeking  to  construct  a  gov 
ernment  after  they  shall  have  destroyed  gov 
ernment  and  made  a  wilderness,  are  they, 
while  they  are  doing  the  best  they  know  how 
— are  they,  therefore,  to  be  cursed,  or  rather 
to  be  pitied,  better  directed,  emancipated? 
When  they  come  to  America  to  teach  us  how 
to  make  commonwealths  we  think  they  are  out 
of  place,  decidedly.  We  thank  Europe  for  a 
great  deal — for  literature,  ancient  and  modern; 
we  thank  Europe  for  teachers  in  art,  in  colour, 
in  form,  in  sound,  we  are  grateful  for  all  these 
things  ;  but  when  the  Socialists  of  Germany, 
102 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

and  the  Communists  of  France,  and  the  Nihil 
ists  of  Russia  come  to  teach  us  how  to  reor 
ganize  human  society,  they  have  come  to  the 
wrong  place.  Their  ignorance  is  not  our  en 
lightenment. 

The  main  cause  of  all  the  disturbance  during 
the  last  half- century — the  cause  of  causes — lies 
in  the  swelling  of  the  intelligence  of  the  great, 
hitherto  neglected,  and  ignorant  masses  of 
Europe  ;  they  are  seeking  elevation,  they  are 
seeking  a  larger  life,  and  as  men  grow  in  in 
telligence  life  must  grow  too.  When  a  man 
is  mere  animal  he  does  not  want  much  except 
straw  and  fodder ;  but  when  a  man  begins  to 
be  a  rational  and  intelligent  creature,  he  wants 
a  good  deal  more  than  the  belly  asks ;  for 
reason  wants  something,  taste  needs  some 
thing,  conscience  craves  something,  every 
faculty  brought  into  ascendancy  and  power  is 
a  new  hunger,  and  must  be  supplied.  No  man 
is  so  cheap  as  the  brutal,  ignorant  man ;  no 
man  can  rise  up  from  the  lower  stations  of  life 
and  not  need  more  for  his  support  from  the 
fact  that  he  is  civilized  and  Christianized,  and 
although  he  may  not  have  it  individually,  the 
community  must  supply  it  for  him.  He  must 
have  resources  of  knowledge,  he  must  have 
means  of  refinement,  he  must  have  limitations 
103 


Lectures  and  Orations 

of  taste  or  he  feels  himself  slipping  back.  As  I 
look  upon  the  phenomena  of  society  in  Europe 
I  see  them  as  the  phenomena  of  God.  He  is 
calling  to  the  great  masses  of  a  growingly  en 
lightened  people,  "  Come  up,"  and  they  are 
saying,  "  Which  way  ?  By  what  road  ? 
How  ?  "  They  must  needs  pass  through  the 
experiment  of  ignorance,  tentative  ignorance, 
and  failure  in  a  thousand  things — they  must 
pass  through  these  preliminary  stages,  for  as  it 
was  necessary  when  they  came  out  of  the 
bondage  of  Egypt  that  the  children  of  Israel 
should  go  through  the  wilderness  for  forty 
years,  so  all  people  have  to  go  forty  years 
and  more  through  the  wilderness  of  mistake, 
the  wilderness  of  blind  trails  and  attempts  that 
fail.  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  the  pyramid 
of  permanent  society  is  built  up  on  blocks  of 
blunders ;  mistakes  have  pointed  out  the  true 
way  to  mankind. 

Now  what  has  taken  place  among  the  com 
mon  people  ?  Once  they  thought  only  about 
their  own  cottage,  and  their  own  little  stead 
ing  ;  they  have  gradually  learned  to  think 
about  the  whole  neighbourhood.  Once  they 
were  able  to  look  only  after  their  own  limited 
affairs  ;  they  begin  to  recognize  the  community 
of  men,  and  to  think  about  the  affairs  of  others, 
104 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

— as  the  Apostle  said  :  "  Look  ye  every  man 
on  his  own  things,  but  also  every  man  on  the 
things  of  others."  They  are  having  a  society 
interest  among  themselves.  Once  they  had 
limited  thoughts  and  bits  of  knowledge ;  now 
they  have  the  mother  of  knowledge — intelli 
gence  :  they  are  competent  to  think,  to  choose 
discriminately ;  they  are  competent  to  organize 
themselves  ;  they  are  learning  that  self-denial 
by  which  men  can  work  in  masses ;  they  are 
beginning  to  have  a  light  in  life  transcendently 
higher  than  the  old  contentment  of  the  bestial 
state  of  miserable  labour. 

Such  are  the  results,  briefly  stated,  to  which 
God  in  His  providence  has  brought  the  masses 
of  the  European  common  people,  and  the 
promise  of  the  future  is  brighter  even  than  the 
fulfillment  of  the  past.  What  the  issues  will 
be,  and  what  the  final  fruits,  God  knows  and 
man  does  not  know  ! 

Now  if  we  examine  these  matters  as  they  are 
in  America,  we  shall  find  that  there  are  in 
fluences  tending  to  give  more  power  to  the 
brain,  alertness,  quickness,  to  give  to  it  also  a 
wider  scope  and  range,  than  it  has  in  the 
average  of  the  labouring  classes  in  Europe. 
Our  climate  is  stimulating.  Shipmasters  tell 
me  that  they  cannot  drink  in  New  York  as 
105 


Lectures  and  Orations 

they  do  in  Liverpool.  (Heaven  help  Liver 
pool  !)  There  is  more  oxygen  in  our  air.  It 
has  some  importance  in  this,  that  anything 
that  gives  acuteness,  vivacity,  spring,  to  the 
substance  of  the  brain  prepares  it  for  education 
and  larger  intelligence.  A  dull,  watery,  slug 
gish  brain  may  do  for  a  Conservative;  but 
God  never  made  them  to  be  the  fathers  of 
progress.  They  are  very  useful  as  brakes  on 
the  wheel  down-hill ;  but  they  never  would 
draw  anything  up-hill  in  the  world.  And  yet, 
in  the  climatic  influence  that  tends  to  give 
vitality  and  quickness,  force,  and  continuity  to 
the  human  brain,  lies  the  hope  for  a  higher 
style  of  manhood ;  although  it  is  not  to  be 
considered  as  a  primary  and  chief  cause  of 
"  smartness,"  if  you  will  allow  that  word,  yet  it 
is  one  among  others.  And  then,  when  the 
child  is  born  in  America,  he  is  born  into  an 
atmosphere  of  expectation.  He  is  not  out  of 
the  cradle  before  he  learns  that  he  has  got  to 
earn  his  own  living ;  he  is  hereditarily  inspired 
with  the  idea  of  getting  on  in  the  world.* 
Sometimes,  when  I  see  babies  in  the  cradle 
apparently  pawing  the  air,  I  think  that  they 
are  making  change  in  their  own  minds  of 
future  bargains.  But  this  has  great  force  as 
an  educating  element  in  early  childhood : 
jo6 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

"You  will  be  poor  if  you  do  not  exert  your 
self:  "  and  at  every  future  stage  circumstances 
make  it  clear  that  it  lies  with  each  man  what 
his  condition  in  society  is  to  be.  This  becomes 
a  very  powerful  developer  of  the  cerebral 
mass,  and  from  it  come  intelligence  and  the 
power  of  intellect.  And  then,  beyond  that, 
when  the  man  goes  into  life  the  whole  style  of 
society  tends  towards  intense  cerebral  excita 
bility.  For  instance,  as  to  business,  I  found  in 
London  that  you  may  go  down  at  nine  o'clock 
to  see  a  man  and  there  is  nobody  in  his  office  ; 
at  ten  o'clock  the  clerks  are  there ;  at  eleven 
o'clock  some  persons  do  begin  to  appear.  By 
that  time  the  Yankees  have  got  half  through 
the  day. 

This  is  in  excess  with  us :  it  is  carried  to  a 
fault ;  for  our  men  are  ridden  by  two  demons. 
First,  they  desire  excessive  property — I  do  not 
know  that  they  are  much  distinguished  from 
their  ancestors — they  desire  more  than  enough 
for  the  uses  of  the  family ;  and  when  a  man 
wants  more  money  than  he  can  use,  he  wants 
too  much.  But  they  have  the  ambition  of 
property,  which  is  accursed,  or  should  be. 
Property  may  be  used  in  large  masses  to  de 
velop  property,  and  coordinated  estates  may 
do  work  that  single  estates  cannot  do ;  I  am 
107 


Lectures  and  Orations 

not,  therefore,  speaking  of  vast  enterprises 
like  railroads  and  factories.  But  the  individ 
ual  man  thinks  in  the  beginning,  "  If  I  could 
only  make  myself  worth  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  I  should  be  willing  to  retire  from  busi 
ness."  Not  a  bit  of  it !  A  hundred  thousand 
dollars  is  only  an  index  of  five  hundred  thou 
sand  ;  and  when  he  has  come  to  five  hundred 
thousand  he  is  like  Moses — and  very  unlike 
him — standing  on  the  top  of  the  mountain  and 
looking  over  the  promised  land,  and  he  says 
to  himself,  "  A  million  !  a  million  !  "  And  a 
million  draws  another  million,  until  at  last  he 
has  more  than  he  can  use,  more  than  is  useful 
for  him,  and  many  a  one  won't  give  it  away — 
not  till  after  his  death.  That  is  cheap  benev 
olence.  Well,  this  is  the  first  element  of  mis 
take  among  large  classes  of  commercial  life  in 
America. 

The  second  is,  they  want  it  suddenly.  They 
are  not  willing  to  say,  "  For  forty  years  I  will 
lay  gradually  the  foundations,  and  build  the^ 
golden  stores  one  above  another."  No  ;  they 
want  to  win  quickly,  by  gambling,  for  that  is 
gambling  when  a  man  wants  money  without 
having  given  a  fair  equivalent  for  it.  And  so 
they  press  nature  to  her  utmost  limits  till  the 
very  diseases  of  our  land  are  changing ;  men 
1 08 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

are  dropping  dead — it  is  heart  disease ;  men 
are  dropping  dead — it  is  paralysis;  men  are 
dropping  dead — it  is  Bright's  disease.  Ah ! 
it  is  the  violence  done  to  the  brain  by  excessive 
industry,  through  excessive  hours,  and  through 
excessive  ambition,  which  is  but  another  name 
for  excessive  avarice. 

But  outside  of  that  there  is  still  another  ex 
citement,  and  that  is  politics.  Now,  the  Eng 
lish  in  their  insular  and  cool  climate  are  rarely 
excited  in  politics,  but  we  are  in  our  sunshiny 
land ;  especially  are  we  so  once  in  four  years, 
when  the  great  quadrennial  Presidential  elec 
tion  comes  off,  and  when  the  most  useless 
thing  on  God's  earth  is  built  on  God's  earth — 
namely,  a  political  platform,  which  men  never 
use  and  never  stand  on  after  it  is  once  built. 
Then  the  candidates  are  put  forth,  and  every 
newspaper  editor,  and  every  public-spirited 
citizen  and  elector,  goes  before  the  people  and 
declares  to  them  that  the  further  existence  of 
the  Government  depends  on  the  election  of 
both  parties.  Now  nations  have  a  wondrous 
way  of  continuing  to  live  after  they  are  doomed 
to  death,  and  we  contrive  to  get  along  from 
four  years  to  four  years  ;  nevertheless  the  ex 
citement  is  prodigious.  Men  say  these  wild 
excitements  are  not  wholesome,  I  say  they  are 
icg 


Lectures  and  Orations 

the  best  things  that  can  happen  to  the  com 
munity.  I  say  the  best  speeches  of  the  com 
munity  scattered  through  the  land,  discussing 
finance,  taxes,  education,  are  the  education  of 
the  common  people,  and  they  learn  more  in  a 
year  of  universal  debate  than  they  would  in 
twenty  years  of  reading  and  thinking  without 
such  help. 

Well,  outside  of  that  there  is  still  another 
excitement,  and  that  is  in  the  Church,  which 
is  the  hottest  place  of  all.  I  do  not  mean  a 
torrid  heat ;  I  do  not  mean  a  fuliginous  kind 
of  heat ;  I  mean  simply  this  that,  even  under 
its  poorest  administration,  religion  brings  to 
bear  upon  the  human  brain  the  most  perma 
nent  and  the  most  profound  excitements  that 
are  known  to  humanity.  If  you  take  denomi 
nations  as  they  are  now,  you  could  not  illus 
trate  much  by  them,  for  they  are  mere  inci 
dents  in  the  history  of  time,  and  they  are  no 
permanent,  cohesive,  systematic  developments. 
I  divide  all  Christian  denominations  into  three 
sections:  those  that  work  by  doctrines  ;  those* 
that  work  by  emotion  ;  and  those  that  work 
by  devotion.  The  men  that  work  by  doctrines 
think  they  have  found  out  the  universe ;  they 
have  not  only  got  it,  but  they  have  formulated 
it :  they  know  all  about  the  Infinite,  they  have 
no 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

sailed  round  Eternity,  they  know  all  about  the 
Eternal  and  the  Everlasting  God,  and  you  will 
hear  them  discuss  questions  of  theology: 
"  Now  God  could  not,  consistent  with  consist 
ency,  do  so-and-so."  They  know  all  His 
difficulties ;  they  know  how  He  got  round 
them.  One  might  easily  come  to  think  that 
God  was  their  next-door  neighbour.  Well, 
after  all,  whether  it  is  true  or  false,  their  sys 
tematic  views,  their  dogmas,  are  really  impor 
tant  to  teach  young  and  middle-aged  and  old 
to  attempt,  by  philosophic  reasoning,  to  reach 
into  these  unfathomable  depths-.  It  produces 
a  power  upon  the  brain  of  most  transcendent 
importance.  The  dogmatists  in  their  way  may 
not  increase  the  sum  of  human  knowledge, 
but  they  increase  the  capacity  of  the  human 
brain  for  profound  thought  and  investigation, 
and  that  is  wholesome  and  helpful. 

Then  there  are  the  joyous  churches,  that  love 
hallelujahs,  songs,  hymns — revival  churches, 
Moody  and  Sankey  movements,  Methodist 
movements  of  all  kinds,  the  Salvation  Army, 
which  has  done  noble  work  among  the  people. 
I  need  not  undertake  to  show  you  that  this 
emotion  also  tends  to  produce  cerebral  activ 
ity,  and  has  an  educating  force  in  regard  to 
the  facility  with  which  the  brain  acts, 
in 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Then  there  come  those  churches  that  live  in 
an  atmosphere  of  devotion,  formulated  prayers 
printed  services.  One  would  not  think  that 
stereotyped  prayers  read  in  the  dim  light 
of  a  painted  window  would  produce  great 
conflagration !  Nor,  indeed,  do  they.  But 
when  you  come  to  look  at  the  interior  life 
of  these  churches,  you  shall  find  that  their 
charities,  their  sense  of  responsibility  to  the 
weak  and  the  poor  and  the  ignorant,  are  per 
petually  acting  as  an  inward  fire,  and  develop 
ing  intelligence  in  ways  not  common  to  the 
other  forms  of  religious  worship. 

Well,  what  has  been  the  result  of  all  these 
influences  which  have  been  superadded  to  those 
universal  stimuli  to  which  all  the  civilized 
world  outside  of  our  land  has  been  subject  ? 
We  have  60,000,000  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren  in  America  ;  we  have  common  schools 
for  every  living  soul  that  is  born  on  this  con 
tinent — except  the  Chinese.  Now,  in  the 
States  where  twenty-five  years  ago  it  was  a 
penitentiary  offense  to  teach  a  slave  how  to 
read,  we  are  sending  out  educated  coloured 
men  and  women  to  teach,  to  preach,  to  practice 
law  and  medicine  through  the  coloured  popu 
lation  of  the  South ;  the  Government  is  en 
listed  in  their  behalf,  and  the  States  are  proud 
112 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

of  their  coloured  schools,  that  a  little  time  ago 
would  have  burnt  a  man  who  dared  to  advo 
cate  the  education  of  the  slave.  We  are  the 
harbour  to  which  all  the  sails  of  the  world 
crowd  with  emigrants,  and  we  bless  God  for  it. 
Their  letters  go  back  thicker  than  leaves  in 
autumn,  to  those  that  are  left  behind ;  and  we 
have  a  vast  population  from  Spain,  from  Por 
tugal,  from  Italy,  from  Hungary,  from  Austria, 
from  Germany,  from  Russia ;  we  have  a  vast 
population  from  all  the  Scandinavian  lands, 
from  Scotland,  from  England,  and  occasionally 
from  Ireland.  Let  them  come !  It  takes  a 
little  time  to  get  them  used  to  things ;  but 
whenever  the  children  of  foreign  emigrants,  of 
whom  we  have  8,000,000  born  and  bred  in 
our  land — whenever  those  children  have  gone 
through  our  common  schools,  they  are  just  as 
good  Americans  as  if  they  had  not  had  foreign 
parents.  The  common  schools  are  the  stom 
achs  of  the  Republic,  and  when  a  man  goes  in 
there  he  comes  out,  after  all,  American. 

Well,  now,  we  are  trying  this  experiment 
before  the  world  on  a  tremendous  scale,  and 
the  world  does  not  quite  believe  in  it.  I  do. 
They  say :  "  With  regard  to  your  success  in 
government  of  the  people  by  the  people  for 
the  people,  you  are  dependent  upon  extraneous 


Lectures  and  Orations 

conditions ;  it  is  not  philosophically  to  be 
inferred  from  the  principles  of  your  govern 
ment  ;  you  have  got  so  much  land  that  it's 
easy  now ;  wait  till  the  struggle  for  existence 
takes  place,  as  in  the  denser  populations  of 
Europe,  and  then  you  will  find  that  self-gov 
ernment  will  be  but  flimsy  to  hold  men's 
passions  in  check.  By  and  by,  you  will  go 
from  anarchy  to  a  strong  centralized  Govern 
ment."  I  do  not  blame  them  for  thinking  so. 
If  I  had  been  brought  up  as  they  have  been, 
perhaps  I  should  think  so;  but  they  do  not 
understand  the  facts  which  actually  are  in 
existence,  and  are  fundamental.  For  we  are 
not  attempting  to  build  Society;  we  are  by 
Society  attempting  to  build  the  individual. 
We  hold  that  the  State  is  strong  in  the  pro 
portion  in  which  every  individual  in  that  State 
is  free,  large,  independent.  Europe  has  a 
finer  educated  upper  class  than  we  have; 
noble  and  deep  scholars  in  greater  numbers 
than  we;  institutions  compared  with  which 
ours  are  puny.  Europe  is  educating  the  top ;  ' 
we  are  educating  society  from  the  bottom  to 
the  top.  We  are  not  attempting  to  lift  fa 
voured  classes  higher;  we  are  not  attempting 
to  give  to  those  that  already  have ;  we  are 
attempting  to  put  our  hands  under  the  foun- 
114 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

dations  of  human  life,  and  lift  everybody  up. 
That  is  a  slower  work ;  but  when  it  is  done, 
the  world  will  never  doubt  again  which  is  the 
wisest  and  best  policy. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  one  looking  from  the 
outside  upon  the  experiment  of  self-govern 
ment  in  America  would  have  a  very  high 
opinion  of  it.  I  have  not  either,  if  I  just 
look  on  the  surface  of  things.  Why,  men 
will  say :  "  It  stands  to  reason  that  60,000,000 
ignorant  of  law,  ignorant  of  constitutional 
history,  ignorant  of  jurisprudence,  of  finance, 
and  taxes  and  tariffs  and  forms  of  currency ; 
60,000,000  people  that  never  studied  these 
things — are  not  fit  to  rule.  Your  diplomacy 
is  as  complicated  as  ours,  and  it  is  the  most 
complicated  on  earth,  for  all  things  grow  in 
complexity  as  they  develop  towards  a  higher 
condition.  What  fitness  is  there  in  these 
people  ?  "  Well,  it  is  not  democracy  merely  ; 
it  is  a  representative  democracy.  Our  people 
do  not  vote  in  mass  for  anything ;  they  pick 
out  captains  of  thought,  they  pick  out  the 
men  that  do  know,  and  they  send  them  to  the 
Legislature  to  think  for  them,  and  then  the 
people  afterwards  ratify  or  disallow  them. 

But  when  you  come  to  the  Legislatures  I 
am  bound  to  confess  that  the  thing  does  not 


Lectures  and  Orations 

look  very  much  more  cheering  on  the  out 
side.  Do  the  people  really  select  the  best  men  ? 
Yes :  in  times  of  danger  they  do  very  gener 
ally,  but  in  ordinary  time  "  kissing  goes  by 
favour."  What  is  that  dandy  in  the  Legis 
lature  for  ?  Oh,  his  father  was  an  eminent 
judge,  and  they  thought  it  would  be  a  com 
pliment  to  the  old  gentleman  to  send  his  son 
up  to  the  Legislature, — not  because  he  knows 
anything,  but  because  his  father  does.  It 
won't  do  to  make  too  close  an  inquisition  as  to 
why  people  are  in  Legislatures.  What  is  that 
weazel-faced  laivyer  doing  there  ?  Well,  there 
may  be  ten  or  twenty  gentlemen  who  wanted 
legislation  that  would  favour  their  particular 
property  interest  instead  of  the  Common 
wealth,  and  they  wanted  somebody  to  wriggle 
a  bill  through  the  Legislature,  and  so  he  sits 
for  the  Commonwealth.  That  great  blustrous 
man  squeezing  on  the  front  seat ;  what  is 
he  there  for?  He?  He  could  shake  hands 
with  more  mothers,  kiss  more  pretty  girls  and 
more  babies,  and  tell  more  funny  stories  in  an* 
hour  than  any  other  man  in  a  month,  and  so 
they  send  him  up  to  make  laws.  When  they 
get  there  it  would  do  your  heart  good  just  to 
go  and  look  at  them.  You  know  what  the 
first  duty  of  a  regular  Republican-Democratic 
1*6 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

legislator  is.  It  is  to  get  back  again  next 
winter.  His  second  duty  is  what  ?  His 
second  duty  is  to  put  himself  under  that 
extraordinary  providence  that  takes  care  of 
legislators'  salaries.  The  old  miracle  of  the 
prophet  and  the  meal  and  the  oil  is  outdone 
immeasurably  in  our  days,  for  they  go  there 
poor  one  year,  and  go  home  rich ;  in  four 
years  they  become  money-lenders,  all  by  a 
trust  in  that  gracious  providence  that  takes 
care  of  legislators'  salaries.  Their  next  duty 
after  that  is  to  serve  the  party  that  sent  them 
up  ;  and  then,  if  there  is  anything  left  of  them, 
it  belongs  to  the  Commonwealth.  Some  one 
has  said,  very  wisely,  that  if  a  man  travelling 
wishes  to  relish  his  dinner  he  had  better  not 
go  into  the  kitchen  to  see  where  it  is  being 
cooked ;  if  any  man  wishes  to  respect  and 
obey  the  law,  he  had  better  not  go  to  the 
Legislature  to  see  where  it  is  prepared.  (This, 
I  presume,  is  entirely  an  American  point  of 
view — without  parallel  in  other  lands  !) 

There  are  a  great  many  more  faults  in  self- 
government,  but  time  will  not  permit  me  to 
enumerate  them  all ;  and  yet  I  say  that  self- 
government  is  the  best  government  that  ever 
existed  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  How  should 
that  be,  with  all  these  damaging  facts  ?  "  By 
117 


Lectures  and  Orations 

their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  What  a 
government  is  is  to  be  determined  by  the 
kind  of  people  it  raises,  and  I  will  defy  the 
whole  world  in  time  past,  and  in  time  present, 
to  show  so  vast  a  proportion  of  citizens  so 
well  off,  so  contented,  so  remunerated  by  their 
toil.  The  average  of  happiness  under  our 
self-government  is  greater  than  it  ever  has 
been,  or  can  be,  found  under  any  sky,  or  in 
any  period  of  human  history.  And  the  philo 
sophical  reason  is  not  far  to  find ;  it  belongs 
to  that  category  in  which  a  worse  thing  is 
sometimes  a  great  deal  better  than  a  better 
thing. 

William  has  been  to  school  for  more  than  a 
year,  and  his  teacher  says  to  him  one  day  : 
"  Now,  William,  I  am  afraid  your  father  will 
think  that  I  am  not  doing  well  by  you ;  you 
must  write  a  composition — you  must  send 
your  father  a  good  composition  to  show  what 
you  are  doing."  Well,  William  never  did 
write  a  composition,  and  he  does  not  know 
how.  "  O,  write  about  something  that  you  do* 
know  about — write  about  your  father's  farm," 
and  so  being  goaded  to  his  task,  William 
says  :  "  A  cow  is  a  useful  animal.  A  cow  has 
four  legs  and  two  horns.  A  cow  gives  good 
milk.  I  love  good  milk.  William  Bradshaw," 
118 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

The  master  looks  over  his  shoulder,  and  says : 
"  Pooh  !  your  father  will  think  you  are  a  cow. 
Here,  give  me  that  composition,  I'll  fix  it/' 
So  he  takes  it  home  and  fixes  it.  Here  it 
reads :  "  When  the  sun  casts  off  the  dusky 
garments  of  the  night,  and  appearing  o'er  the 
orient  hills,  sips  the  dewdrops  pendant  from 
every  leaf,  the  milkmaid  goes  afield  chanting 
her  matin  song,"  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  Now 
while,  rhetorically,  the  master's  composition 
was  unspeakably  better  than  William's,  as  a 
part  of  William's  education,  his  own  poor 
scrawly  lines  are  unspeakably  better  than  the 
one  that  has  been  "  fixed  "  for  him.  No  man 
ever  yet  learned  by  having  somebody  else  learn 
for  him.  A  man  learns  arithmetic  by  blunder 
in  and  blunder  out,  but  at  last  he  gets  it.  A 
man  learns  to  write  through  scrawling ;  a  man 
learns  to  swim  by  going  into  the  water ;  and 
a  man  learns  to  vote  by  voting.  Now  we  are 
not  attempting  to  make  a  Government;  we 
are  attempting  to  teach  sixty  millions  of  men 
how  to  conduct  a  Government  by  self-control, 
by  knowledge,  by  intelligence,  by  fair  oppor 
tunity  to  practice.  It  is  better  that  we  should 
have  sixty  millions  of  men  learning  through 
their  own  mistakes  how  to  govern  themselves, 
than  it  is  to  have  an  arbitrary  Government 
119 


Lectures  and  Orations 

with  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the  people  igno 
rant. 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  of  the  development 
of  the  common  people  in  their  relations  to 
political  economy  and  to  government  and 
politics,  but  I  have  left  out  the  more  impor 
tant,  the  less  traversed  part.  I  affirm  that  the 
intelligence  of  the  great  mass  of  the  common 
people  has  a  direct  bearing  upon  science,  upon 
art,  upon  morality,  upon  religion  itself.  It 
would  not  seem  as  though  the  men  that  were 
superior  in  education  and  knowledge  could  re 
ceive  anything  from  those  below.  Perhaps 
No ;  perhaps  Yes  ;  for  that  which  education 
gives  is  more  nearly  artificial  than  that  which 
is  inspired  by  the  dominant  sense  and  condi 
tion  of  the  human  mind  that  unites  people  in 
greater  mass.  Why,  two  hundred  years  ago, 
there  was  but  one  doctor  in  the  village  ;  no 
body  but  him  knew  anything  of  medicine. 
To-day  hygiene,  physiology,  are  taught  in  our 
schools,  are  spread  abroad  by  newspapers  or 
in  lectures,  or  from  the  pulpit,  and  the  common 
people  in  our  land  have  their  dividends  of 
human  knowledge.  A  woman  that  has  brought 
up  six  children  knows  more  about  medicine 
than  the  village  doctor  did  two  hundred  years 
ago.  Two  centuries  ago,  nobody  knew  any- 
120 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

thing  about  law  but  the  judge  and  the  coun 
cillors.  To-day  everybody  knows  something 
about  law.  We  have  broken  open  the  arcana, 
we  have  distributed  its  treasures  of  knowledge, 
and  the  labourer  knows  something  about  law, 
the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  the  merchant — 
everybody  has  an  elementary  knowledge  of 
law.  Has  it  destroyed  the  profession  of  the 
law  ?  There  never  were  so  many  highly  edu 
cated  men  as  now  in  the  profession  of  the  law, 
never  were  they  more  trustworthy  and  hon 
ourable,  never  had  larger  interests  put  into 
their  hands,  never  had  larger  fees,  and  never 
were  more  willing  to  have  them  than  they  are 
now.  They  do  not  suffer  by  the  intelligence 
of  the  common  people  which  comes  from  dis 
tribution  of  the  elementary  forms  of  profes 
sional  knowledge. 

How,  then,  is  it  with  regard  to  the  Church  ? 
Just  the  same  ;  just  the  same.  Three  hundred 
years  ago  there  was  but  one  Bible  in  a  parish 
in  England,  and  that  was  chained  to  a  column 
in  the  church  ;  and  there  was  but  one  man  to 
read  it — the  priest.  And  the  people  did  not 
understand  it  then,  and  it  was  a  part  of  official 
duty  to  go  from  house  to  house  on  the 
theory  that  the  average  parent  did  not  know 
enough  to  teach  the  children  the  first  prin- 
121 


Lectures  and  Orations 

ciples  of  morality  and  religion.  Go  to-day 
over  the  same  community  or  a  like  community 
in  America,  and  on  the  Sabbath  morning 
you  shall  see  the  girls  and  the  young  men 
with  Bibles  under  their  arms,  themselves 
teachers,  going  to  mission  schools,  going 
down  to  instruct  their  mental  inferiors.  The 
clergy  has  distributed  its  functions  among  the 
common  people.  Has  that  destroyed  the  pro 
fession  ?  It  never  was  stronger,  never  was  as 
strong  as  it  is  to-day.  Thank  God,  as  to  mere 
professional  power,  save  by  ordination,  save  by 
some  endowment  from  without,  there  never 
was  a  time  since  the  Advent  when  the  clergy 
had  so  little  influence  as  they  have  to-day :  and 
it  is  growing  less  and  less,  and  with  the  ages 
they  will  grow  so  pale  that  they  cannot  cast 
a  shadow.  Yet  there  never  was  a  time  when 
the  man  of  God — because  he  was  moved  by 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  to  unfold  his  own 
moral  consciousness,  living  among  men,  tied 
to  them  by  no  other  ties  than  the  sympathies 
of  love — there  never  was  a  time  when  he  had 
so  much  influence  as  to-day.  And  let  me 
say  that  with  regard  to  the  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  everywhere,  who  have  great  and  proper 
influence,  it  is  not  the  paraphernalia  of  their 
profession,  but  it  is  the  man  inside  of  all  these 

122 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

things  that  is  the  power.  And  ennobled  man 
hood  is  coming  into  a  position  of  influence  in 
this  world  that  it  never  had  in  any  other  pe 
riod,  nor  in  any  other  nation  outside  of  our 
great  English  stock,  which  is  the  root,  as  the 
Germanic  from  which  it  sprang,  of  the  grandest 
manhood  that  ever  has  been.  But  the  stature 
has  yet  to  be  greater,  and  the  power  and  the 
character  are  yet  to  be  greater.  Now  has  this 
alteration  changed  the  economy  of  the 
Church,  or  destroyed  it  ?  The  Church  was 
never  so  strong  as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  not  the 
pastor's  business  any  longer  to  go  from  house 
to  house  as  if  they  were  ignorant.  Fathers 
and  mothers  of  children  have  now  more  knowl 
edge  than,  three  hundred  years  ago,  the  minis 
ter  himself  had,  and  the  families  are  the  bul 
warks  of  the  Church.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
Church  has  protected  the  family,  but  the 
Church  itself  has  had  its  life  from  the  family 
emancipated,  and  made  larger  and  nobler. 
Well,  has  it  promoted  morality  ?  Yes  !  Of  all 
the  schools  on  earth  where  intelligence  and  piety 
dwell  together,  the  father  tongue  and  the  mother 
love  have  been  the  instructors  of  the  children. 
There  is  in  these  centres  more  of  real  purity, 
and  staunch  honesty,  and  thorough  integrity, 
than  in  any  other  institutions  upon  the  earth. 
123 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Has  this  development  made  any  difference 
with  theology  ?  Yes,  thank  God,  a  great  deal 
of  difference.  Theology  in  every  age  is  the 
best  account  that  men  can  give  of  the  rela 
tions  of  the  human  family  to  God,  and  the 
types  must  be  the  types  that  society  in  those 
periods  is  best  acquainted  with.  When  men 
thought  that  the  King  was  Divinely  King,  and 
that  the  channel  of  instruction  to  mankind 
came  through  the  King,  it  was  almost  inevi 
table  that  the  God  should  be  nothing  but  a 
superhuman  King,  having  no  consideration 
for  the  individual,  but  only  thinking  about 
His  law  and  about  the  universe  and  about  the 
national  life ;  that  theology  stood  in  the  way 
of  the  people,  and  men  were  running  round  it 
or  creeping  over  it,  or  running  against  it  and 
knocking  their  brains  out.  Well,  what  has 
the  education  of  the  common  people  done  in 
that  regard?  It  has  taught  men  the  meaning 
of  the  first  words  of  the  Lord's  prayer  : — 
"  Our  Father."  The  old  theology  is  from  the 
forge,  from  law,  from  government  among 
men ;  the  New  Testament  theology  takes  its 
centre  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  in  the 
Divine  love. 

And  how  has  that  old  governmental  theology 
been  changed  ?  If  there  be  one  thing  which 
124 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

the  family  can  teach  men  it  is  the  doctrine  of 
love,  and  if  there  be  one  priestess  that  can 
teach  it  above  all  others  it  is  the  mother. 
Hers  are  the  sufferings  that  precede  the 
child's  existence;  through  the  doors  and 
pangs  of  the  mother  it  comes  to  life.  She  is 
the  food  of  the  child,  she  watches  it.  If  it  is 
sick  she  is  the  nurse ;  if  it  suffers  she  surfers 
yet  more.  She  gives  up  all  her  natural  liberty, 
she  accounts  no  assembly  so  full  of  pleasure, 
and  nowhere  else  is  her  life  so  sweet  to  her  as 
by  the  side  of  the  cradle  or  with  the  babe  in 
her  lap.  For  this  she  suffered,  for  this  she 
gives  all  her  knowledge,  and  as  it  grows  up 
step  by  step  she  feeds  it,  and  she  becomes  its 
knowledge  and  its  righteousness,  and  its 
justice  and  its  sanctification ;  she  stands  for 
it,  and  out  of  her  it  lives.  And  when  the 
father,  even,  has  lost  out  of  his  ear  the  funeral 
bell  when  the  child  has  gone,  the  mother 
hears  it  toll  to  the  end  of  her  life.  Or,  when 
misled  and  overtempted,  a  child  in  ascending 
years  breaks  away  from  family  influence  and 
goes  down  step  by  step  to  disgrace  and  misery, 
and  at  last  is  afar  off,  the  poor  child  sends 
back  word :  "  Oh,  mother,  may  I  come  home 
to  die  ?  "  there  is  no  reproach,  the  one  word 
that  rings  out  like  an  angel's  trumpet  is : 
125 


Lectures  and  Orations 

"  Oh,  my  child,  come  home,"  and  the  mother's 
knee  to  the  returning  prodigal  is  the  most 
sacred  place  in  the  universe  this  side  of  the 
feet  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  there  be  one  single 
creature  out  of  heaven  or  on  the  earth  that  is 
able  to  teach  the  theologian  what  is  the  love 
of  God,  it  is  the  mother.  And  that  work  has 
but  begun,  and  both  the  teacher,  the  preacher, 
and  the  Church  are  to  see  balmier  and  better 
days  in  the  time  to  come,  when  at  last  we 
shall  have  a  theology  that  teaches  the  Father 
hood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Many  good  men  are  alarmed  at  the  inevi 
table  changes  in  theology  and  government  and 
the  conditions  of  the  people.  They  want 
peace.  Well,  you  can  find  it  in  the  grave 
yard,  and  that  is  the  only  place.  Among 
living  men  you  can  find  no  peace.  Growth 
means  disturbance ;  peace  in  any  such  sense 
as  that  of  no  investigation,  no  change,  means 
death.  When  men  say :  "  If  you  give  up 
the  old  beacons  you  do  not  know  where  you 
will  land," — I  know  where  you  will  land  if 
you  do  not !  Do  you  believe  in  God  ?  I  do. 
Do  you  believe  that  He  has  a  providence  over 
human  affairs  ?  I  do.  And  I  believe  that  the 
Hand  that  has  steered  this  vagrant  world 
through  all  the  dark  seas  and  storms  of  the 
126 


The  Reign  of  the  Common  People 

past  has  hold  of  the  helm  yet,  and  through  all 
seeming  confusions  He  will  guide  the  nations 
and  the  people  safe  to  the  golden  harbour  of 
the  millennium.  Trust  Him ;  love  Him ;  and 
rejoice  ! 


127 


IV 
ELOQUENCE  AND  ORATORY ' 

I  CONGRATULATE  myself,  always,  for 
the  privilege  of  appearing  before  a  Phila 
delphia  audience — intelligent,  sympathetic, 
appreciative ;  but  never  more  than  now, 
when  the  audience  is  assembled  both  to  be 
hold,  and  to  bear  witness  to,  one  of  the 
noblest  institutions  that  could  be  established 
in  your  midst ;  one  of  the  most  needed ;  and 
one  which  I  have  reason  to  believe  has  been 
established  under  the  inspiration  of  the  highest 
motives,  not  only  of  patriotism  in  education, 
but  of  religion  itself.  This  city — eminent  in 
many  respects  for  its  institutions,  and  for  its 
various  collections  which  make  civilization  so 
honourable — I  congratulate,  that  now,  at  last, 
it  has  established  a  school  of  oratory  in  this 
central  position,  equidistant  from  the  South, 
from  the  West,  and  from  the  North,  as  a  fitting 
centre  from  which  should  go  out  influences 
that  shall  exalt,  if  not  regenerate,  public  senti- 

1  Originally  delivered  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  year  1876, 
at  the  opening  of  the  School  of  Oratory. 
128 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

ment  on  the  subject  of  oratory ;  for,  while 
progress  has  been  made,  and  is  making,  in 
the  training  of  men  for  public  speaking,  I 
think  I  may  say  that,  relative  to  the  exertions 
that  are  put  forth  in  other  departments  of 
education,  this  subject  is  behind  almost  all 
others.  Training  in  this  department  is  the 
great  want  of  our  day ;  for  we  are  living  in  a 
land  whose  genius,  whose  history,  whose  in 
stitutions,  whose  people,  eminently  demand 
oratory.  There  is  nothing  that  draws  men 
more  quickly  to  any  centre  than  the  hope  of 
hearing  important  subjects  wisely  discussed 
with  full  fervour  of  manhood ;  and  that  is 
oratory — truth  bearing  upon  conduct,  and 
character  set  home  by  the  living  force  of  the 
full  man.  And  nowhere,  in  the  field,  in  the 
forum,  in  the  pulpit,  or  in  schools,  is  there 
found  to  be  a  living  voice  that  informs  of 
beauty,  traces  rugged  truth,  and  gives  force 
and  energy  to  its  utterance,  that  people  do 
not  crowd  and  throng  there. 

We  have  demonstrations  enough,  fortunately, 
to  show  that  truth  alone  is  not  sufficient ;  for 
truth  is  the  arrow,  but  man  is  the  bow  that 
sends  it  home.  There  be  many  men  who  are 
the  light  of  the  pulpit,  whose  thought  is  pro 
found,  whose  learning  is  universal,  but  whose 
129 


Lectures  and  Orations 

offices  are  unspeakably  dull.  They  do  make 
known  the  truth  ;  but  without  fervour,  without 
grace,  without  beauty,  without  inspiration ;  and 
discourse  upon  discourse  would  fitly  be  called 
the  funeral  of  important  subjects  / 

Nowhere  else  is  there  to  be  so  large  a  dis 
closure  of  what  is  possible  from  man  acting 
upon  men,  as  in  oratory.  In  ancient  times, 
and  in  other  lands,  circumstances  more  or  less 
propitious  developed  the  force  of  eloquence  in 
special  instances,  or  among  particular  classes. 
But  consider  the  nature  of  our  own  institutions. 
Consider  that  nothing  can  live  in  our  midst  un 
til  it  has  accepted  its  mission  of  service  to  the 
whole  people. 

Now  and  then,  men,  mistaking  good  sense, 
speak  contemptuously  of  popularizing  learn 
ing,  and  of  popularizing  science  ;  but  popular 
intelligence  is  that  atmosphere  in  which  all 
high  scientific  truth  and  research,  and  all 
learning,  in  its  amplest  extent,  are,  by  advance 
in  civilization,  to  find  their  nourishment  and 
stimulation ;  and  throughout  our  land  the  peo~- 
plc  demand  to  know  what  are  the  principles 
of  government,  what  is  the  procedure  of 
courts,  what  is  the  best  thought  in  regard  to 
national  policy,  what  are  the  ripening  thoughts 
respecting  the  reformations  of  the  times,  what 
130 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

is  social  truth,  what  is  civil  truth,  and  what  is 
divine  truth.  These  things  are  discussed  in 
the  cabin,  in  the  field,  in  the  court-house,  in  the 
legislative  hall,  everywhere,  throughout  forty 
or  fifty  millions  of  people.  This  is  in  accordance 
with  the  nature  of  our  institutions  and  our 
customs  ;  and  to  the  living  voice  more  largely 
than  to  any  other  source  are  we  indebted  for 
the  popularization  of  learning  and  knowledge, 
and  for  motive  force,  which  the  printed  page 
can  scarcely  give  in  any  adequate  measure. 

Yet,  though  this  is  in  accordance  with  the 
necessity  of  our  times,  our  institutions  and  our 
customs,  I  think  that  oratory,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  here  and  there  an  instance  which  is  sup 
posed  to  be  natural,  is  looked  upon,  if  not  with 
contempt,  at  least  with  discredit,  as  a  thing 
artificial ;  as  a  mere  science  of  ornamentation  ; 
as  a  method  fit  for  actors  who  are  not  sup 
posed  to  express  their  own  sentiments,  but  un 
fit  for  a  living  man  who  has  earnestness  and 
sincerity  and  purpose. 

Still,  on  the  other  hand,  I  hold  that  oratory 
has  this  test  and  mark  of  divine  providence,  in 
that  God,  when  He  makes  things  perfect, 
signifies  that  He  is  done  by  throwing  over 
them  the  robe  of  beauty ;  for  beauty  is  the 
divine  thought  of  excellence.  All  things, 


Lectures  and  Orations 

growing  in  their  earlier  stages,  are  rude.  All 
of  them  are  in  vigorous  strength,  it  may  be ; 
but  not  until  the  blossom  comes,  and  the  fruit 
hangs  pendant,  has  the  vine  evinced  for  what 
it  was  made.  God  is  a  God  of  beauty  ;  and 
beauty  is  everywhere  the  final  process.  When 
things  have  come  to  that,  they  have  touched 
their  limit. 

Now  a  living  force  that  brings  to  itself  all 
the  resources  of  imagination,  all  the  inspira 
tions  of  feeling,  all  that  is  influential  in  body, 
in  voice,  in  eye,  in  gesture,  in  posture,  in  the 
whole  animated  man,  is  in  strict  analogy  with 
the  divine  thought  and  the  divine  arrange 
ment  ;  and  there  is  no  misconstruction  more 
utterly  untrue  and  fatal  than  this  :  that  oratory 
is  an  artificial  thing,  which  deals  with  baubles 
and  trifles,  for  the  sake  of  making  bubbles  of 
pleasure  for  transient  effect  on  mercurial  au 
diences.  So  far  from  that,  it  is  the  consecra 
tion  of  the  whole  man  to  the  noblest  purposes 
to  which  one  can  address  himself— the  educa 
tion  and  inspiration  of  his  fellow  men  by  all 
that  there  is  in  learning,  by  all  that  there 
is  in  thought,  by  all  that  there  is  in  feeling, 
by  all  that  there  is  in.  all  of  them,  sent 
home  through  the  channels  of  taste  and  of 
beauty.  And  so  regarded,  oratory  should  take 
132 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

its  place  among  the  highest  departments  of 
education. 

I  have  said  that  it  is  disregarded  largely ;  so 
it  is ;  and  one  of  the  fruits  of  this  disregard  is 
that  men  fill  all  the  places  of  power — how  ? 
With  force  misdirected ;  with  energy  not  half 
so  fruitful  as  it  might  be;  with  sincerity  that 
knows  not  how  to  spread  its  wings  and  fly.  I 
think  that  if  you  were  to  trace  and  to  analyze 
the  methods  which  prevail  in  all  the  depart 
ments  of  society,  you  would  find  in  no  other 
such  contempt  of  culture,  and  in  no  other  such 
punishment  of  this  contempt. 

May  I  speak  of  my  own  profession,  from  a 
lifelong  acquaintance — from  now  forty  years  of 
public  life  and  knowledge  and  observation  ? 
May  I  say,  without  being  supposed  to  arrogate 
anything  to  my  own  profession,  that  I  know  of 
no  nobler  body  of  men,  of  more  various  ac 
complishments,  of  more  honesty,  of  more  self- 
sacrifice,  and  of  more  sincerity,  than  the  clergy 
men  of  America  ?  And  yet,  with  exceptional 
cases,  here  and  there,  I  cannot  say  that  the  pro 
fession  represents  eminence  :  I  mean  eminence, 
not  in  eloquence,  but  in  oratory.  I  bear  them 
witness  that  they  mean  well ;  I  bear  them  wit 
ness  that  in  multitudes  of  cases  they  are  gro 
tesque  ;  that  in  multitudes  of  other  cases  they 
133 


Lectures  and  Orations 

are  awkward;  and  that  in  multitudes  still  greater 
they  are  dull.  They  are  living  witnesses  to 
show  how  much  can  be  done  by  men  that  are 
in  earnest  without  offices,  and  without  the  ad 
juvants  of  imagination  and  of  taste,  by  training ; 
and  they  are  living  witnesses  also,  I  think,  of 
how  much  is  left  undone  to  make  truth  palatable, 
and  to  make  men  eager  to  hear  it  and  earnest 
to  receive  it,  by  the  lack  of  that  very  training 
which  they  have  despised — or  at  any  rate  neg 
lected. 

^vOr,  shall  I  ask  you  to  scrutinize  the  manner 
and  the  methods  that  prevail  in  our  courts — 
the  everlasting  monotone  and  seesaw  ?  Shall  I 
ask  you  to  look  at  the  intensity  that  raises  it 
self  to  the  highest  pitch  in  the  beginning,  and 
that  then,  running  in  a  screaming  monotone, 
wearies,  if  it  does  not  affright,  all  that  hear  it  ? 

Or,  shall  I  ask  you  to  consider  the  wild  way 
in  which  speaking  takes  place  in  our  political 
conflicts  throughout  the  country — the  bellow 
ing  of  one,  the  shouting  of  another,  the  gro- 
tesqueness  of  a  third,  and  the  want  of  any 
given  method,  or  any  controlled  emotion,  in 
almost  all  of  them. 

How  much  squandering  there  is  of  the  voice ! 
How  little  is  there  of  the  advantage  that  may 
come  from  conversational  tones !      How  sel- 
134 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

dom  does  a  man  dare  to  acquit  himself  with 
pathos  and  fervour  !  And  the  men  are  them 
selves  mechanical,  and  methodical  in  the  bad 
way,  who  are  most  afraid  of  the  artificial  train 
ing  that  is  given  in  the  schools,  and  who  so 
often  show  by  the  fruit  of  their  labour  that  the 
want  of  oratory  is  the  want  of  education. 

How  remarkable  is  sweetness  of  voice  in  the 
mother,  in  the  father,  in  the  household  !  The 
music  of  no  chorded  instruments  brought  to 
gether  is,  for  sweetness,  like  the  music  of  fa 
miliar  affection  when  spoken  by  brother  and 
sister,  or  by  father  and  mother. 

Conversation  itself  belongs  to  oratory. 
Where  is  there  a  wider,  a  more  ample  field  for 
the  impartation  of  pleasure  or  knowledge  than 
at  a  festive  dinner  ?  But  how  often  do  we 
find  that  when  men,  having  well  eaten  and 
drunken,  arise  to  speak,  they  are  well  qualified 
to  keep  silence  and  utterly  disqualified  to 
speak !  How  rare  it  is  to  find  felicity  of  dic 
tion  on  such  occasions  !  How  seldom  do  we 
see  men  who  are  educated  to  a  fine  sense  of 
what  is  fit  and  proper  at  gatherings  of  this 
kind  !  How  many  men  there  are  who  are 
weighty  in  argument,  who  have  abundant  re 
sources,  and  who  are  almost  boundless  in  their 
power  at  other  times  and  in  other  places,  but 
135 


Lectures  and  Orations 

who  when  in  company  among  their  kind  are 
exceedingly  unapt  in  their  methods  !  Having 
none  of  the  secret  instruments  by  which  the 
elements  of  nature  may  be  touched,  having  no 
skill  and  no  power  in  this  direction,  they 
stand  as  machines  before  living,  sensitive  men. 
A  man  may  be  as  a  master  before  an  instru 
ment  ;  only  the  instrument  is  dead,  while  he 
has  the  living  hand ;  and  out  of  that  dead  in 
strument  what  wondrous  harmony  springs 
forth  at  his  touch  !  And  if  you  can  electrify 
an  audience  by  the  power  of  a  living  man  on 
dead  things,  how  much  more  should  that  au 
dience  be  electrified  when  the  chords  are  liv 
ing  and  the  man  is  alive,  and  he  knows  how 
to  touch  them  with  divine  inspiration  ! 

I  advocate,  therefore,  in  its  full  extent,  and 
for  every  reason  of  humanity,  of  patriotism, 
and  of  religion,  a  more  thorough  culture  of 
oratory  ;  and  I  define  oratory  to  be  the  art 
of  influencing  conduct  with  the  truth  set  home 
by  all  the  resources  of  the  living  man.  Its  aim 
is  not  to  please  men,  but  to  build  them  up ; 
and  the  pleasure  which  it  imparts  is  one  of  the 
methods  by  which  it  seeks  to  do  this.  It  aims 
to  get  access  to  men  by  allaying  their  preju 
dices.  A  person  who,  with  unwelcome  truths, 
undertakes  to  carry  them  to  men  who  do  not 

136 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

wish  them,  but  who  need  them,  undertakes  a 
task  which  is  like  drawing  near  to  a  fortress. 
The  times  have  gone  by,  but  you  remember 
them,  when,  if  I  had  spoken  here  on  certain 
themes  belonging  to  patriotism  which  now  are 
our  glory,  I  should  have  stood  before  you  as 
before  so  many  castles  locked  and  barred. 
How  unwelcome  was  the  truth  !  But  if  one 
had  the  art  of  making  the  truth  beautiful ;  if 
one  had  the  art  of  coaxing  the  keeper  of  the 
gate  to  turn  the  key  and  let  the  interloping 
thought  come  in ;  if  one  could  by  persuasion 
control  the  Cerberus  of  hatred,  of  anger,  of 
envy,  of  jealousy,  that  sits  at  the  gate  of  men's 
souls,  and  watches  against  unwelcome  truths ; 
if  one  could  by  eloquence  give  sops  to  this 
monster,  and  overcome  him,  would  it  not  be 
worth  while  to  do  it  ?  Are  we  to  go  on  still 
cudgelling,  and  cudgelling,  and  cudgelling 
men's  ears  with  coarse  processes  ?  Are  we  to 
consider  it  a  special  providence  when  any  good 
comes  from  our  preaching  or  our  teaching  ? 
Are  we  never  to  study  how  skillfully  to  pick  the 
lock  of  curiosity,  to  unfasten  the  door  of  fancy, 
to  throw  wide  open  the  halls  of  emotion,  and 
to  kindle  the  light  of  inspiration  in  the  souls 
of  men  ?  Is  there  any  reality  in  oratory  ?  It 
is  all  real ! 

137 


Lectures  and  Orations 

First,  in  the  orator  is  the  man.  Let  no 
man  who  is  a  sneak  try  to  be  an  orator.  The 
method  is  not  the  substance  of  oratory.  A 
man  who  is  to  be  an  orator  must  have  some 
thing  to  say.  He  must  have  something  that 
in  his  very  soul  he  feels  to  be  worth  saying. 
He  must  have  in  his  nature  that  kindly  sym 
pathy  which  connects  him  with  his  fellow  men, 
and  which  so  makes  him  a  part  of  the  audience 
which  he  moves  that  his  smile  is  their  smile, 
that  his  tear  is  their  tear,  and  that  the  throb  of 
his  heart  becomes  the  throb  of  the  hearts  of 
the  whole  assembly.  A  man  that  is  humane,  a 
lover  of  his  kind,  full  of  ail  earnest  and  sweet 
sympathy  for  their  welfare,  has  in  him  the 
original  element,  the  substance  of  oratory, 
which  is  truth.  But  in  this  world  truth  needs 
nursing  and  helping ;  it  needs  every  advantage  ; 
for  the  underflow  of  life  is  animal,  and  the 
channels  of  human  society  have  been  taken 
possession  of  by  lower  influences  beforehand. 
The  devil  squatted  on  human  territory  before 
the  angel  came  to  dispossess  him.  Pride  and ' 
intolerance,  arrogance  and  its  cruelty,  selfish 
ness  and  its  greed,  all  the  lower  appetites  and 
passions,  do  swarm,  and  do  hold  in  thrall  the 
under-man  that  each  one  of  us  yet  carries — 
the  man  of  flesh,  on  which  the  spirit-man  seeks 

138 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

to  ride,  and  by  which  too  often  he  is  thrown 
and  trampled  under  foot.  The  truth  in  its 
attempt  to  wean  the  better  from  the  worse 
needs  every  auxiliary  and  every  adjuvant. 

Therefore,  the  man  who  goes  forth  to  speak 
the  truth,  whether  men  will  hear  or  whether  they 
will  forbear,  and  goes  with  the  determination 
that  they  shall  hear;  the  man  who  carries 
victory  in  his  hope ;  the  man  who  has  ir 
refragable  courage — it  is  not  enough  that 
he  has  in  his  soul  this  element,  which,  though 
it  be  despised,  is  the  foundation  element,  and 
which  comes  first  by  birth,  thanks  to  your 
father  and  mother,  thanks  to  the  providence 
that  gave  you  such  a  father  and  such  a  mother, 
and  thanks  to  the  God  who  inspires  it  and 
sanctifies  it.  With  this  predisposition  and  this 
substance  of  truth  which  men  need,  and  which 
is  to  refashion  human  life  in  all  its  parts,  the 
question  arises  whether  there  is  need  of  any 
thing  more  than  gracious  culture.  Well,  so 
long  as  men  are  in  the  body  they  need  the 
body.  There  are  some  who  think  they  have 
well-nigh  crucified  the  body.  If  they  have, 
why  are  they  lingering  here  below,  where  they 
are  not  useful,  and  where  they  are  not  needed  ? 
So  long  as  men  touch  the  ground,  and  feel 
their  own  weight,  so  long  they  need  the 
139 


Lectures  and  Orations 

aptitudes  and  the  instrumentalities  of  the 
human  body  ;  and  one  of  the  very  first  steps 
in  oratory  is  that  which  trains  the  body  to  be 
the  welcome  and  glad  servant  of  the  soul — 
which  it  is  not  always ;  for  many  and  many  a 
one  who  has  acres  of  thought  has  little  bodily 
culture,  and  as  little  grace  of  manner ;  and 
many  and  many  a  one  who  has  sweetening 
inside  has  cacophony  when  he  speaks.  Harsh, 
rude,  hard,  bruising,  are  his  words. 

The  first  work,  therefore,  is  to  teach  a  man's 
body  to  serve  his  soul ;  and  in  this  work  the 
education  of  the  bodily  presence  is  the  very 
first  step.  We  had  almost  extinguished  the 
power  of  the  human  body  by  our  pulpits, 
which,  in  early  days,  were  the  sources  and 
centres  of  popular  eloquence  such  as  there 
was  ;  for  men  followed  the  Apocalyptic  figure 
of  the  candlestick,  the  pulpit  in  the  church 
representing  the  candlestick,  and  the  minister 
being  supposed  to  be  the  light  in  it.  In  those 
days  of  symbolization  everything  had  to  be 
symbolized  ;  and  when  a  church  was  built  they 
made  a  pulpit  that  was  like  the  socket  of  a 
candlestick,  and  put  a  man  into  it ;  and  thus 
entubbed  he  looked  down  afar  upon  his  con 
gregation  to  speak  unto  them  !  Now,  what 
man  could  win  a  coy  and  proud  companion  if 
140 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

he  were  obliged  to  court  at  fifty  feet  distance 
from  her  ?  or,  what  man,  pleading  for  his  life, 
would  plead  afar  off,  as  through  a  speaking 
trumpet,  from  the  second  story,  to  one  down 
below  ? 

Nay,  men  have  been  covered  up.  The  in 
troduction  of  platforms  has  been  thought,  on 
the  whole,  to  be  a  somewhat  discourteous 
thing.  I  will  tell  you,  if  you  will  indulge  me, 
a  little  reminiscence  of  my  own  experience. 
In  the  church  where  I  minister  there  was  no 
pulpit;  there  was  only  a  platform ;  and  some 
of  the  elect  ladies,  honourable  and  precious, 
waited  upon  me  to  know  if  I  would  not  permit 
a  silk  screen  to  be  drawn  across  the  front  of 
my  table,  so  that  my  legs  and  feet  need  not  be 
seen.  My  reply  to  them  was,  "  I  will,  on  one 
condition — that  whenever  I  make  a  pastoral 
call  at  your  houses  you  will  have  a  green  silk 
bag  into  which  I  may  put  my  legs." 

If  the  legs  and  feet  are  tolerable  in  a  parlour, 
or  in  a  social  room,  why  are  they  not  tolerable 
on  a  platform  ?  It  takes  the  whole  man  to 
make  a  man  ;  and  at  times  there  are  no  gestures 
that  are  comparable  to  the  simple  stature  of 
the  man  himself.  So  it  behooves  us  to  train 
men  to  use  the  whole  of  themselves.  Fre 
quently  the  foot  is  emphasis,  and  the  posture  is 
141 


Lectures  and  Orations 

oftentimes  power,  after  a  word,  or  accompany 
ing  a  word ;  and  men  learn  to  perceive  the 
thought  coming  afar  off  from  the  man  himself 
who  foreshadows  it  by  his  action. 

You  shall  no  longer,  when  men  are  obliged 
to  stand  disclosed  before  the  whole  audience, 
see  ministers  bent  over  a  desk,  like  a  weary 
horse  crooked  over  a  hitching  block,  and 
preaching  first  on  one  leg,  and  then  on  the 
other.  To  be  a  gentleman  in  the  presence 
of  an  audience  is  one  of  the  first  lessons  which 
oratory  will  teach  the  young  aspiring  speaker. 

But,  beside  that,  what  power  there  is  in 
posture,  or  in  gesture !  By  it,  how  many 
discriminations  are  made  ;  how  many  smooth 
things  are  rolled  off;  how  many  complex 
things  men  are  made  to  comprehend  !  How 
many  things  the  body  can  tongue  when  the 
tongue  itself  cannot  well  utter  the  thing  de-. 
sired !  The  tongue  and  the  person  are  to 
cooperate  ;  and  having  been  trained  to  work 
together,  their  result  is  spontaneous,  unthought 
of,  unarranged  for. 

Now,  to  the  real  natural  man — and  the 
natural  man  is  the  educated  man ;  not  the 
thing  from  which  he  sprang — how  much  is  to 
be  added  !  Many  a  man  will  hear  the  truth 
for  the  pleasure  of  hearing  it,  who  would  not 
142 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

hear  it  for  the  profit  of  hearing  it;  and  so 
there  must  be  something  more  than  its  plain 
statement.  Among  other  things,  the  voice — 
perhaps  the  most  important  of  all,  and  the 
least  cultured — should  not  be  forgotten.  How 
many  men  are  there  that  can  speak  from  day 
to  day  one  hour,  two  hours,  three  hours,  with 
out  exhaustion,  and  without  hoarseness  ?  But 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  vocal  organs,  and  of 
the  ordinary  vocal  organs,  to  do  this.  What 
multitudes  of  men  weary  themselves  out  be 
cause  they  put  their  voice  on  a  hard  run  at 
the  top  of  its  compass  ! — and  there  is  no  re 
lief  to  them,  and  none,  unfortunately,  to  the 
audience.  But  the  voice  is  like  an  orchestra. 
It  ranges  high  up,  and  can  shriek  betimes  like 
the  scream  of  an  eagle ;  or  it  is  low  as  a  lion's 
tone  ;  and  at  every  intermediate  point  is  some 
peculiar  quality.  It  has  in  it  the  mother's 
whisper  and  the  father's  command.  It  has  in 
it  warning  and  alarm.  It  has  in  it  sweetness. 
It  is  full  of  mirth  and  full  of  gayety.  It 
glitters,  though  it  is  not  seen  with  all  its 
sparkling  fancies.  It  ranges  high,  inter 
mediate,  or  low,  in  obedience  to  the  will,  un 
consciously  to  him  who  uses  it;  and  men 
listen  through  the  long  hour,  wondering  that 
it  is  so  short,  and  quite  unaware  that  they 
143 


Lectures  and  Orations 

have  been  bewitched  out  of  their  weariness  by 
the  charm  of  a  voice,  not  artificial,  not  pre 
arranged  at  the  time  in  the  man's  thought, 
but  by  assiduous  training  made  to  be  his 
second  nature.  Such  a  voice  answers  to  the 
soul,  and  is  its  beating. 

Now  against  this  training  manifold  objec 
tions  are  made.  It  is  said  that  it  is  unworthy 
of  manhood  that  men  should  be  so  trained. 
The  conception  of  a  man  is  that  of  blunt 
earnestness.  It  is  said  that  if  a  man  knows 
what  he  wants  to  say,  he  can  say  it ;  that  if 
he  knows  what  he  wants  to  have  men  do,  the 
way  is  for  him  to  pitch  at  them.  That  seems 
to  be  about  the  idea  which  ordinarily  prevails 
on  this  subject.  Shoot  a  man,  as  you  would  a 
rocket  in  war ;  throw  him  as  you  would  a 
hand-grenade;  and  afterwards,  if  you  please, 
look  to  see  where  he  hits ;  and  woe  be  to 
those  who  touch  the  fragments !  Such  ap 
pears  to  be  the  notion  which  many  have  on 
this  subject.  But  where  else,  in  what  other 
relation,  does  a  man  so  reason  ?  Here  is  the 
highest  function  to  which  any  man  can  address 
himself — the  attempt  to  vitalize  men  ;  to  give 
warmth  to  frigid  natures ;  to  give  aspirations 
to  the  dull  and  low-flying ;  to  give  purpose  to 
conduct,  and  to  evolve  character  from  con- 
144 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

duct ;  to  bring  to  bear  every  part  of  one's  self 
— the  thinking  power;  the  perceptive  power  ; 
the  intuitions  ;  the  imagination  ;  all  the  sweet 
and  overflowing  emotions.  The  grace  of  the 
body;  its  emphasis;  its  discriminations;  the 
power  of  the  eye  and  of  the  voice — all  these 
belong  to  the  blessedness  of  this  work. 

"  No,"  says  the  man  of  the  school  of  the 
beetle,  "  buzz,  and  fight,  and  hit  where  you 
can."  Thus  men  disdain  this  culture  as 
though  it  were  something  effeminate;  as 
though  it  were  a  science  of  ornamentation; 
as  though  it  were  a  means  of  stealing  men's 
convictions,  not  enforcing  them;  and  as 
though  it  lacked  calibre  and  dignity. 

But  why  should  not  this  reasoning  be  ap 
plied  to  everything  else  ?  The  very  man  who 
will  not  train  his  own  voice  to  preach,  to 
lecture,  to  discourse,  whether  in  the  field  or 
in  the  legislative  hall  or  in  the  church,  will 
pay  large  dues  through  weary  quarters  to  drill 
his  daughter's  voice  to  sing  hymns,  and  canzo 
nets,  and  other  music.  This  is  not  counted 
to  be  unworthy  of  the  dignity  of  womanhood. 

"  But,"  it  is  said,  "  does  not  the  voice  come 

by  nature  ?  "     Yes  ;  but  is  there  anything  that 

comes  by  nature  which  stays  as  it  comes  if  it 

is  worthily  handled  ?     We  receive  one  talent 

MS 


Lectures  and  Orations 

that  we  may  make  it  five  ;  and  we  receive  five 
talents  that  we  may  make  them  ten.  There  is 
no  one  thing  in  man  that  he  has  in  perfection 
till  he  has  it  by  culture.  We  know  that  in 
respect  to  everything  but  the  voice  in  speech. 
Is  not  the  ear  trained  to  acute  hearing  ?  Is 
not  the  eye  trained  in  science  ?  Do  men  not 
school  the  eye,  and  make  it  quick-seeing  by 
patient  use  ?  Is  a  man,  because  he  has 
learned  a  trade,  and  was  not  born  with  it, 
thought  to  be  less  a  man  ?  Because  we  have 
made  discoveries  of  science  and  adapted  them 
to  manufacture ;  because  we  have  developed 
knowledge  by  training,  are  we  thought  to  be 
unmanly?  Shall  we,  because  we  have  un 
folded  our  powers  by  the  use  of  ourselves  for 
that  noblest  of  purposes,  the  inspiration  and 
elevation  of  mankind,  be  less  esteemed?  Is 
the  school  of  human  training  to  be  disdained 
when  by  it  we  are  rendered  more  useful  to  our 
fellow  men  ? 

But  it  is  said  that  this  culture  is  artificial ; 
that  it  is  mere  posturing ;  that  it  is  simple* 
ornamentation.  Ah  !  that  is  not  because  there 
has  been  so  much  of  it,  but  because  there  has 
been  so  little  of  it.  If  a  man  were  to  begin, 
as  he  should,  early ;  or  if,  beginning  late,  he 
were  to  addict  himself  assiduously  to  it,  then 
146 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

the  graces  of  speech,  the  graces  of  oratory, 
would  be  to  him  what  all  learning  must  be 
before  it  is  perfect,  namely,  spontaneous.  If 
he  were  to  be  trained  earlier,  then  his  training 
would  not  be  called  the  science  of  ostentation 
or  of  acting. 

Never  is  a  man  thoroughly  taught  until  he 
has  forgotten  how  he  learned.  Do  you  re 
member  when  you  tottered  from  chair  to 
chair  ?  Now  you  walk  without  thinking  that 
you  learned  to  walk.  Do  you  remember 
when  your  inept  hands  wandered  through  the 
air  towards  the  candle,  or  towards  the  mother's 
bosom  ?  Now  how  regulated,  how  true  to  your 
wish,  how  quick,  how  sharp  to  the  touch,  are 
those  hands  !  But  it  was  by  learning  that  they 
became  so  far  perfected.  Their  perfection  is 
the  fruit  of  training. 

Let  one  think  of  what  he  is  doing,  and  he 
does  it  ill.  If  you  go  into  your  parlour,  where 
your  wife  and  children  are,  you  always  know 
what  to  do  with  yourself — or  almost  always  ! 
You  are  not  awkward  in  your  postures,  nor 
are  you  awkward  with  your  hands ;  but  let  it 
be  understood  that  there  are  a  dozen  strangers 
to  be  present,  and  you  begin  to  think  how  to 
appear  well  before  them ;  and  the  result  of 
your  thinking  about  it  is  that  you  appear  very 


Lectures  and  Orations 

ill.  Where  to  put  your  hands,  and  where  to 
put  yourself,  you  do  not  know ;  how  to  stand 
or  how  to  sit  troubles  you  ;  whether  to  hold  up 
one  hand  or  the  other  hand,  or  to  hold  both 
down,  or  both  up,  is  a  matter  of  thought  with 
you. 

Let  me  walk  on  the  narrowest  of  these 
boards  upon  which  I  stand,  and  I  walk  with 
simplicity  and  perfect  safety,  because  I  scarcely 
think  of  walking ;  but  lift  that  board  fifty  feet 
above  the  ground,  and  let  me  walk  on  it  as  far 
as  across  this  building,  and  let  me  think  of  the 
consequences  that  would  result  if  I  were  to 
fall,  and  how  I  would  tremble  and  reel !  The 
moment  a  man's  attention  is  directed  to  that 
which  he  does,  he  does  it  ill.  When  the  thing 
which  a  man  does  is  so  completely  mastered 
that  there  is  an  absence  of  volition,  and  he 
does  it  without  knowing  it,  he  does  it  easily ; 
but  when  the  volition  is  not  subdued,  and 
when,  therefore,  he  does  not  act  spontaneously, 
he  is  conscious  of  what  he  does,  and  the  con 
sciousness  prevents  his  doing  it  easily.  Uncon 
sciousness  is  indispensable  to  the  doing  a  thing 
easily  and  well. 

Now,  in  regard  to  the  training  of  the  orator, 
it  should  begin  in  boyhood,  and  should  be  part 
and  parcel  of  the  lessons  of  the  school.  Grace ; 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

posture  ;  force  of  manner ;  the  training  of  the 
eye,  that  it  may  look  at  men,  and  pierce  them, 
and  smile  upon  them,  and  bring  summer  to 
them,  and  call  down  storms  and  winter  upon 
them ;  the  development  of  the  hand,  that  it 
may  wield  the  sceptre,  or  beckon  with  sweet 
persuasion — these  things  do  not  come  artifi 
cially  ;  they  belong  to  man.  Why,  men  think 
that  nature  means  that  which  lies  back  of 
culture.  Then  you  ought  never  to  have  de 
parted  from  babyhood ;  for  that  is  the  only 
nature  you  had  to  begin  with.  But  is  nature 
the  acorn  forever  ?  Is  not  the  oak  nature  ? 
Is  not  that  which  comes  from  the  seed  the  best 
representation  of  the  divine  conception  of  the 
seed  ?  And  as  men  we  are  seeds.  Culture  is 
but  planting  them  and  training  them  accord 
ing  to  their  several  natures  ;  and  nowhere  is 
training  nobler  than  in  preparing  the  orator 
for  the  great  work  to  which  he  educates  him 
self — the  elevation  of  his  kind,  through  truth, 
through  earnestness,  through  beauty,  through 
every  divine  influence. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  times  are  changing, 
and  that  we  ought  not  to  attempt  to  meddle 
with  that  which  God  has  provided  for.  Say 
men,  "  The  truth  is  before  you  ;  there  is  your 
Bible  ;  go  preach  the  Word  of  God."  Well,  if 
149 


Lectures  and  Orations 

you  are  not  to  meddle  with  what  God  has 
provided  for,  why  was  not  the  Bible  sent  in 
stead  of  you  ?  You  were  sent  because  the 
very  object  of  a  preacher  was  to  give  the  truth 
a  living  form,  and  not  have  it  lie  in  the  dead 
letter.  As  to  its  simplicity  and  as  to  its  beaujy, 
I  confute  you  with  your  own  doctrine ;  for,  as 
I  read  the  sacred  text,  it  is,  "  Adorn  the 
doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour."  We  are  to 
make  it  beautiful.  There  are  times  when  we 
cannot  do  it.  There  are  times  for  the  scalpel, 
there  are  times  for  the  sword,  and  there  are  times 
for  the  battle-axe ;  but  these  are  exceptional. 
"  Let  every  one  of  us  please  his  neighbour  for 
his  good  to  edification "  is  a  standing  com 
mand  ;  and  we  are  to  take  the  truth,  of  every 
kind,  and  if  possible  bring  it  in  its  summer 
guise  to  men. 

But  it  is  said,  "  Our  greatest  orators  have 
not  been  trained."  How  do  you  know  ?  It 
may  be  that  Patrick  Henry  went  crying  in  the 
wilderness  of  poor  speakers,  without  any  great 
training ;  I  will  admit  that  now  and  then  there 
are  gifts  so  eminent  and  so  impetuous  that  they 
break  through  ordinary  necessities  ;  but  even 
Patrick  Henry  was  eloquent  only  under  great 
pressure ;  and  there  remain  the  results  of  only 
one  or  two  of  his  efforts.  Daniel  Webster  is 
150 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

supposed  in  many  respects  to  have  been  the 
greatest  American  orator  of  his  time ;  but 
there  never  lived  a  man  who  was  so  studious  of 
everything  he  did,  even  to  the  buttons  on  his 
coat,  as  Daniel  Webster.  Henry  Clay  was 
prominent  as  an  orator,  but  though  he  was  not 
a  man  of  the  schools,  he  was  a  man  who 
schooled  himself;  and  by  his  own  thought  and 
taste  and  sense  of  that  which  was  fitting  and 
beautiful,  he  became,  through  culture,  an  ac 
complished  orator. 

If  you  go  from  our  land  to  other  lands  ;  if 
you  go  to  the  land  which  has  been  irradiated 
by  parliamentary  eloquence ;  if  you  go  to  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  ;  if  you  go  to  the  great 
men  in  ancient  times  who  lived  in  the  intellect ; 
if  you  go  to  the  illustrious  names  that  every 
one  recalls — Demosthenes  and  Cicero — they 
represent  a  life  of  work. 

Not  until  Michael  Angelo  had  been  the 
servant  and  the  slave  of  matter  did  he  learn  to 
control  matter ;  and  not  until  he  had  drilled 
and  drilled  and  drilled  himself  were  his  touches 
free  and  easy  as  the  breath  of  summer,  and  full 
of  colour  as  the  summer  itself.  Not  until 
Raphael  had  subdued  himself  by  colour  was  he 
the  crowning  artist  of  beauty.  You  shall  not 
find  one  great  sculptor,  nor  one  great  architect, 


Lectures  and  Orations 

nor  one  great  painter,  nor  one  eminent  man  in 
any  department  of  art,  nor  one  great  scholar, 
nor  one  great  statesman,  nor  one  divine  of 
universal  gifts,  whose  greatness,  if  you  inquire, 
you  will  not  find  to  be  the  fruit  of  study,  and 
of  the  evolution  that  comes  from  study. 

It  is  said,  furthermore,  that  oratory  is  one  of 
the  lost  arts.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  our 
struggles  brought  forth  not  one  prominent 
orator.  This  fact  reveals  a  law  which  has  been 
overlooked — namely,  that  aristocracy  dimin 
ishes  the  number  of  great  men,  and  makes  the 
few  so  much  greater  than  the  average  that  they 
stand  up  like  the  pyramids  in  the  deserts  of 
Egypt;  whereas,  democracy  distributes  the 
resources  of  society,  and  brings  up  the  whole 
mass  of  the  people ;  so  that  under  a  demo 
cratic  government  great  men  never  stand  so 
high  above  the  average  as  they  do  when  so 
ciety  has  a  level  far  below  them.  Let  build 
ing  go  up  on  building  around  about  the  tallest 
spire  in  this  city,  and  you  dwarf  the  spire, 
though  it  stand  as  high  as  heaven,  because 
everything  by  which  it  is  surrounded  has  risen 
higher. 

Now  throughout  our  whole  land  there  was 
more  eloquence  during  our  struggles  than 
there  was  previously ;  but  it  was  in  far  more 
152 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

mouths.  It  was  distributed.  There  was  in 
the  mass  of  men  a  higher  method  of  speaking, 
a  greater  power  in  addressing  their  fellow  men ; 
and  though  single  men  were  not  so  prominent 
as  they  would  have  been  under  other  circum 
stances,  the  reason  is  one  for  which  we  should 
be  grateful.  There  were  more  men  at  a  higher 
average,  though  there  were  fewer  men  at  an 
extreme  altitude. 

Then  it  is  said  that  books,  and  especially 
newspapers,  are  to  take  the  place  of  the  living 
voice.  Never  !  never !  The  miracle  of  mod 
ern  times,  in  one  respect,  is  the  Press ;  to  it  is 
given  a  wide  field  and  a  wonderful  work ;  and 
when  it  shall  be  clothed  with  all  the  moral  in 
spirations,  with  all  the  ineffable  graces,  that 
come  from  simplicity  and  honesty  and  convic 
tion,  it  will  have  a  work  second  almost  to 
none  other  in  the  land.  Like  the  light,  it  car 
ries  knowledge  every  day  around  the  globe. 
What  is  done  at  St.  Paul's  in  the  morning  is 
known,  or  ever  half  the  day  has  run  around, 
in  Wall  Street,  New  York.  What  is  done  in 
New  York  at  the  rising  of  the  sun  is,  before 
the  noontide  hour,  known  in  California.  By  the 
power  of  the  wire,  and  of  the  swift-following 
engine,  the  papers  spread  at  large  vast  quan 
tities  of  information  before  myriad  readers 
153 


Lectures  and  Orations 

throughout  the  country;  but  the  office  of  the 
papers  is  simply  to  convey  information.  They 
cannot  plant  it.  They  cannot  open  the  soil 
and  put  it  into  the  furrow.  They  cannot  en 
force  it.  It  is  given  only  to  the  living  man, 
standing  before  men  with  the  seed  of  knowl 
edge  in  his  hand,  to  open  the  furrows  in  the 
living  souls  of  men,  and  sow  the  seed,  and 
cover  the  furrows  again.  Not  until  human  na 
ture  is  other  than  it  is,  will  the  function  of  the 
living  voice — the  greatest  force  on  earth 
among  men — cease.  Not  until  then  will  the 
orator  be  useless,  who  brings  to  his  aid  all  that 
is  fervid  in  feeling ;  who  incarnates  in  himself 
the  truth  ;  who  is  for  the  hour  the  living  reason, 
as  well  as  the  reasoner ;  who  is  for  the  mo 
ment  the  moral  sense ;  who  carries  in  himself 
the  importunity  and  the  urgency  of  zeal ;  who 
brings  his  influence  to  bear  upon  men  in 
various  ways  ;  who  adapts  himself  continually 
to  the  changing  conditions  of  the  men  that  are 
before  him  ;  who  plies  them  by  softness  and 
by  hardness,  by  light  and  by  darkness,  by  hope 
and  by  fear ;  who  stimulates  them  or  represses 
them  at  his  will.  Nor  is  there,  let  me  say, 
on  God's  footstool,  anything  so  crowned  and 
so  regal  as  the  sensation  of  one  who  faces  an 
audience  in  a  worthy  cause,  and  with  ampli- 
154 


Eloquence  and  Oratory 

tude  of  means,  and  defies  them,  fights  them, 
controls  them,  conquers  them. 

Great  is  the  advance  of  civilization ;  mighty 
are  the  engines  of  force,  but  man  is  greater 
than  that  which  he  produces.  Vast  is  that 
machine  which  stands  in  the  dark  uncon 
sciously  lifting,  lifting — the  only  humane 
slave — the  iron  slave — the  Corliss  engine ;  but 
he  that  made  the  engine  is  greater  than  the 
engine  itself.  Wonderful  is  the  skill  by  which 
that  most  exquisite  mechanism  of  modern  life, 
the  watch,  is  constructed ;  but  greater  is  the 
man  that  made  the  watch  than  the  watch  that 
is  made.  Great  is  the  Press,  great  are  the 
hundred  instrumentalities  and  institutions  and 
customs  of  society;  but  above  them  all  is 
Man.  The  living  force  is  greater  than  any  of 
its  creations — greater  than  society,  greater 
than  its  laws.  "  The  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath,"  saith  the 
Lord.  Man  is  greater  than  his  own  institu 
tions.  And  this  living  force  is  worthy  of  all 
culture — of  all  culture  in  the  power  of  beauty ; 
of  all  culture  in  the  direction  of  persuasion ;  of 
all  culture  in  the  art  of  reasoning. 

To  make  men  patriots,  to  make  men  Chris 
tians,  to  make  men  the  sons  of  God,  let  all  the 
doors  of  heaven  be  opened,  and  let  God  drop 
155 


Lectures  arid  Orations 

down  charmed  gifts — winged  imagination,  all- 
perceiving  vision,  and  all-judging  reason. 
Whatever  there  is  that  can  make  men  wiser 
and  better — let  it  descend  upon  the  head  of 
him  who  has  consecrated  himself  to  the  work 
of  mankind,  and  who  has  made  himself  an 
orator  for  man's  sake  and  for  God's  sake. 


156 


V 

WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING1 

I  DO  not  propose  to  speak  to-night  at  any 
length.  It  is  now  a  time  at  which  Dr. 
Channing  would  have  been  abed  and  asleep 
for  an  hour.  You  have  had  a  banquet,  if  ever 
an  audience  had  ;  and  you  have  also  had  the 
benediction  of  a  good  sound  orthodox  clergy 
man  at  the  end  of  it.  And  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  consent  of  men,  whether  they  are  in 
the  Mother  Church  or  in  any  of  the  scattered 
sectarian  churches, — orthodox,  half-orthodox, 
or  heterodox, — is  all  gained  to-night,  and 
gained  on  one  point :  that  a  man  who  loves 
God  fervently  and  his  fellow  men  heartily,  and 
devotes  his  life  to  that  love,  is  a  member  of 
every  communion  and  of  every  church,  and  is 
orthodox  in  spite  of  orthodoxy  or  anything 
else! 

There  is  one  point,  however,  that  has  been 
pressed  upon  my  mind,  as  I  have  been  over 
whelmed  with  the  richness  of  the  thoughts  and 

1  At  a  celebration  of  the  centenary  anniversary  of  Chan- 
ning's  birth,  held  in  Boston,  April  7,  1880. 

157 


Lectures  and  Orations 

illustrations  of  the  speakers  gone  by.  So  warm 
and  enthusiastic  have  been  the  eulogies  to 
night,  that  one  might  almost  imagine  that  Dr. 
Channing  was  himself  the  light  of  the  world  ! 
But  no ;  so  rich  is  God,  so  all-pervading,  so 
incarnated  in  every  soul  that  thinks  and  in 
every  heart  that  throbs,  that  Dr.  Channing 
was  but  one  single  taper  shining  in  the  dark 
ness  of  this  world,  and  drawing  his  light  from 
the  great  solar  Fountain,  God.  He  was  the 
mouthpiece  of  his  time  ;  but  his  time  had  pre 
pared  the  material  which  he  expressed.  No 
man,  in  any  age,  though  he  stand  head  and 
shoulders  above  his  fellows,  is  competent  to  do 
much  more  than  has  been  wrought  out  for 
him, — to  be  the  teacher  of  those  things  which 
have  been  made  needed,  and  manifestly  needed, 
by  the  experience  of  millions  of  men,  and  to 
give  intellectual  expression  to  those  truths 
which  in  their  emotive  form  have  welled  up 
in  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  bosoms. 
Dr.  Channing  felt  all  the  accumulated  force, 
moral  and  social,  of  the  times  gone  by  and  the 
times  at  hand  in  which  he  lived.  And  so, 
though  he  was  great,  mankind  behind  him 
was  greater,  the  time  was  greater,  and  the  all- 
informing  spirit  of  God  was  greater  yet. 
In  my  boyhood,  I  went  to  Boston  in  1826, 

158 


William  Ellery  Charming 

and  was  thrown  into  the  very  centre  and  heat 
of  that  great  controversy  which  was  raging,  in 
which  my  father  was  an  eloquent  thunderer 
on  one  side,  and  in  which  Dr.  Channing  was 
an  ^eloquent  silent  man  on  the  other  side. 
Mostly  his  work  had  been  done,  at  that  time. 
Do  I  not  remember  the  image  of  that  day  ? 
In  my  own  nature  enthusiastic,  sincere,  and 
truthful,  did  not  what  my  father  thought  be 
come  what  I  thought?  And  did  I  not  know 
that  Unitarians  were  the  children  of  the 
devil?  And  did  I  not  know  that  those 
heresiarchs,  if  they  had  not  fallen  from 
heaven,  ought  to  fall  from  the  earth  ?  And 
did  I  not  regard  Channing,  I  will  not  say 
as  a  man  misled,  but  as  a  man  demented,  in 
whom  was  the  spirit  of  error,  leading  men 
down  to  perdition,  and  who  ought  to  be 
silenced,  and  all  of  whose  followers  ought  to 
be  scourged  ?  Did  I  not  read  in  those  days 
the  haughty  statement,  the  reply,  the  rejoinder, 
and  then  the  diffusive  controversy  generally  ? 
And  yet  time  has  wrought  with  me,  as  it  has 
wrought  with  you,  and  with  all  men,  wonder 
ful  changes ;  and  now  those  two  men,  my 
father  and  Dr.  Channing,  that  stood  over 
against  each  other, — to  my  young  seeming, — 
as  wide  apart  as  the  East  from  the  West,  I  see 
159 


Lectures  and  Orations 

standing  together,  and  travelling  in  precisely 
the  same  lines,  and  towards  precisely  the  same 
results.  For  did  not  Lyman  Beecher  feel  that, 
as  the  doctrine  of  God  and  of  moral  govern 
ment  was  presented  in  the  day  in  which  he 
lived,  the  glory  of  God  was  obscured,  that  men 
were  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  that  the  sweet 
ness  and  the  beauty  of  the  love  of  Christ  in  the 
Gospel  were  misunderstood,  or  even  veiled  and 
utterly  hidden?  And  what  was  he  striving 
for  but  such  a  renovation  of  the  old  orthodoxy 
as  should  let  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God,  as 
it  shone  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  have  a  fair 
chance  at  folks  ?  And  what  was  Channing 
striving  for?  He  felt  that  the  old  formulas 
and  statements  of  men  did  not  let  out  the 
whole  circumference,  nor  did  it  give  the  whole 
force  and  beauty  of  the  character  of  God.  He, 
too,  was  driving,  as  best  he  could,  the  clouds 
out  of  heaven,  and  seeking  to  make  the  char 
acter  of  God  more  resplendent,  and  morally 
more  effective  to  mankind.  And  there  they 
stood  bombarding  each  other,  both  of  them 
with  the  same  grand  object  and  motive ;  like 
two  valiant  men-of-war,  that  are  giving  each 
other  broadside  after  broadside,  and  yet  are  on 
a  stream  of  Providence  that  is  carrying  them 
unconsciously  in  the  same  direction  !  They 
160 


William  Ellery  Charming 

sailed  side  by  side,  and  as  they  met  in  heaven 
I  think  they  lifted  up  hands  of  wonder  and  ex 
claimed,  "  Is  it  possible  that  I  am  here — and 
you?" 

My  estimate  of  Channing  is  not  less  because 
my  estimate  of  the  whole  force  of  society  is 
greater.  He  was  one  of  the  men,  and  but  one, 
— a  great  and  noble  and  leading  man.  Ten 
thousand  other  things  were  working.  When 
Sisera  was  at  his  battle,  the  stars  in  their  courses, 
it  is  said,  fought  against  him  ;  and,  when  God 
hath  great  work  on  hand,  the  stars,  and  every 
thing  that  is  beneath  them,  are  working  in  one 
direction.  The  changes  in  governments,  the 
advance  in  laws,  the  development  of  a  better 
political  economy,  the  evolution  of  common 
wealths,  the  progress  of  science  and  of  the 
mechanic  arts,  but  especially  the  science  of 
mind,  are  working  out  a  final  theology  by 
working  to  the  same  great  end, — the  emanci 
pation  of  man,  the  clarity  of  his  understanding, 
the  sovereignty  of  his  conscience,  the  sym 
pathies  of  his  soul,  and  the  full  disclosure  of 
God,  over  all,  blessed  forever.  And  it  is  enough 
glory  to  say  of  Channing  that  he  understood 
the  day  in  which  he  lived,  and  understood 
that  he  was  appointed  to  be  a  pilot  to  the  times 
that  were  to  come  after  ;  and  that  whatever  he 
161 


Lectures  and  Orations 

did  administratively  he  did  intelligently,  that 
the  young  and  the  vital  wood  that  carried  the 
sap  and  the  life  of  the  tree  might  have  a 
chance. 

Those  who  are  horticulturists  will  under 
stand  that  the  bark  that  carried  the  sap  last 
year  will  have  to  get  out  of  the  way,  and  let 
the  bark  that  comes  on  this  year  have  a  chance ; 
and  the  kind  pomologist,  with  his  knife,  often 
slits  the  bark  of  the  cherry  tree  that  is  con 
servative,  to  give  a  chance  to  that  which  has  a 
hereditary  right  to  be  the  bark,  and  let  the  bark- 
bound  diameter  of  the  tree  expand  a  little. 
Dr.  Channing,  among  other  men,  used  the 
knife  for  the  sake  of  letting  the  new  truth, 
which  was  struggling  for  a  larger  diameter  in 
the  world,  have  a  chance. 

Well,  what  has  been  the  result  ?  That  was 
one  hundred  years  ago  to-day.  And  what 
would  Channing  think  if  he  were  allowed  to 
stand  here  to-night?  He  would  have  been 
half  deaf  by  this  time,  if  he  had  heard  every 
thing  that  has  been  said  on  this  platform  ;  but, 
if  he  turned  his  eye  upwards,  and  saw  the 
change  that  has  come  over  the  American 
world,  to  say  nothing  of  Christendom,  during 
the  last  hundred  years,  and  contrasted  the 
spirit  of  antipathy  which  existed  between  sect 
162 


William  Ellery  Channing 

and  sect,  between  theologian  and  theologian, 
and  the  spirit  which  exists  between  them  now, 
what  would  be  his  thought  ?  Even  so  sympa 
thetic  a  man  as  my  father  never  saw  an 
Arminian  come  into  his  church  in  that  early 
day,  that  he  did  not  feel  bound  to  give  him 
such  a  dose  of  Calvinism  as  would  physic  him 
for  a  year  !  I  know  very  well  how  stringent 
were  the  habits,  the  methods,  the  peculiarities 
of  each  sect,  and  how  each  sect  defended  itself. 
They  were  like  so  many  nests  of  wasps  in 
neighbouring  trees,  each  one  stinging  for  his 
own  nest,  and  each  one  fighting  against  the 
nest  of  every  other. 

So  the  fiery  sects,  if  they  were  not  dead  and 
buried  in  worldliness,  or  when  they  revived 
and  came  to  life,  were  animated  by  a  spirit  of 
antipathy  and  suspicion  and  jealousy.  Of 
course  the  spirit  of  envy  and  jealousy  is  uni 
versal  and  continuous  ;  but  in  that  early  day 
there  was  the  spirit  of  criticism  and  of  suspicion, 
and  it  all  sprang  from  a  very  obvious  source. 
For  had  they  not  embraced  that  world-wide 
heresy,  that  God  had  committed  His  kingdoms 
in  this  world  to  the  consciences  of  His  official 
disciples,  and  had  ordained  their  consciences 
to  govern  the  consciences  of  all  mankind  ? 
Has  it  not  been  the  bane  of  every  sect,  from 

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Lectures  and  Orations 

the  beginning  to  this  day,  that  men  have  felt 
that  they  were  the  special  depositaries  of  divine  . 
knowledge,  and  that  the  deposition  gave  them 
the  power  to  dictate  to  other  men  what  they 
should  think  and  what  they  should  believe, 
and  to  hold  the  rod  of  everlasting  damnation 
over  their  head,  if  they  did  not  think  and 
believe  as  they  were  told  ?  All  men  held 
substantially  this  view  then,  and  some  men 
hold  it  even  now.  So  it  came  to  pass  that 
each  sect  followed  its  own  notion  of  God, 
marking  out  exactly  the  line  of  the  wall, 
throwing  up  exactly  the  right  bulwarks,  and 
defending  what  each  man  knew  to  be  the  one 
exclusive  truth  of  creation,  and  feeling  bound 
to  look  sharp  at  all  the  others,  to  contest  them, 
and  to  condemn  them,  that  the  deposit  of 
truth  which  each  one  had  in  purity  might  have 
a  fair  chance  in  this  world  ! 

That  is  all  changed.  I  remember  when  you 
could  not  get  a  minister  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  of  the  Unitarian,  and  of  the 
Universalist,  and  the  Swedenborgian,  and  *of 
the  Baptist,  and  of  the  Congregationalist,  on  to 
a  common  platform.  You  could  scarcely  do 
it  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  and  it  was  a  wonder 
then  that  they  did  not  fight.  But,  to-day,  on 
how  many  different  subjects  are  they  glad  to 
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William  Ellery  Channing 

come  together  and  consult !  And  how 
marvellous  an  event  is  it  of  the  time  in  which 
we  live,  to  see  all  these  staunch  churches,  by 
their  staunchest  ministers  and  advocates,  stand 
together  through  one  long  day  with  nothing 
on  their  tongue  but  praises  of  that  heretic 
Unitarian,  Dr.  William  Ellery  Channing ! 
Time  and  the  world  do  move.  Changes  have 
been  wrought ! 

And  more  than  that :  there  has  come  in, 
from  influences  which  it  has  pleased  God  to 
give  forth,  and  distribute  in  the  heart  and 
understanding  of  many  a  man,  but  by  none 
more  than  by  Channing,  a  change  by  which 
it  is  understood  in  this  world  that,  if  God  is  to 
have  all  the  glory,  then  He  must  be  repre 
sented  to  be  a  God  that  is  altogether  glorious  ; 
that,  if  He  is  to  have  sovereign  and  absolute 
control  of  men,  then  He  is  to  have  it  because 
all  the  faculties  of  the  human  soul  which  He 
infixed  in  mankind  for  the  very  purpose  of 
judging  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  what 
is  just  and  what  is  unjust,  what  is  holy  and 
pure  and  what  is  unholy  and  impure,  are 
satisfied  with  the  representations  that  are  made 
of  Him  ;  and  the  whole  Christian  world  to-day 
is  feeling  after  such  a  representation  of  God  as 
mankind  will  not  let  die  out.  No  view  of 


Lectures  and  Orations 

God  will  be  allowed  to  reign  which  does  not 
conform  to  the  enlightened  moral  sense  of 
good  men.  While  there  are  men  who  are 
atheists  largely  because  the  God  on  which 
they  have  been  fed  is  not  God,  is  a  misrepre 
sentation  of  the  true  God,  in  churches  all  over 
our  land, — and,  with  perhaps  more  reluctant 
step,  in  the  churches  of  other  lands, — the  cry 
of  Christendom  is :  "  Give  to  us  a  God  that 
shall  not  be  apologized  for  !  Give  to  us  a  God 
that  we  do  not  need  to  defend  !  Give  to  us  a 
God  that,  when  the  child,  and  the  mother  of 
the  child,  and  the  just  man,  and  the  loving 
soul,  look  up,  they  shall  say, '  Whom  have  I  in 
heaven  but  Thee  ?  and  there  is  none  that  I 
desire  upon  earth  beside  Thee.'  " 

The  Calvinistic  theology  of  New  England 
before  Channing's  day  had  become  intolerable 
to  the  best  Orthodox  men,  and  Channing  was 
but  one  of  many  who  sought  its  modification. 
Judged  by  the  Scotch,  the  Genevese  standard 
— many  noble  men,  Edwards,  Hopkins,  Bel 
lamy,  West,  Spring,  Backus,  Strong,  D wight, 
and  a  host  of  others,  were  smoothing  its 
features,  and  softening  its  immedicable  harsh 
ness.  The  revolt  against  this  system  of 
organized  Fatalism  and  Infinite  Despotism  is 
not  yet  ended.  In  the  lecture-rooms  of  the 
166 


William  Ellery  Channing 

schools,  where  intellect  has  supreme  sway  and 
heart  is  excluded,  the  system  lives,  but  in  the 
pulpit  it  has  perished.  The  educated  moral 
sense  of  the  laymen  has  slain  it.  The  free  air 
of  human  life,  the  play  of  Christian  sympathies 
upon  it,  have  made  the  employment  of  it  as 
impossible  as  to  uphold  astrology,  or  alchemy, 
or  the  inquisition. 

But,  while  we  thus  speak  of  Calvinism,  John 
Calvin  was  illustrious  as  a  radical.  He  broke 
away  from  the  reigning  spirit  of  his  own  times, 
and  led  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry.  Were  he 
alive  in  our  day,  no  man  would  scourge 
Calvinism  with  such  resounding  blows  as  John 
Calvin  !  Nor  was  his  theological  system  with 
out  great  benefit,  in  an  age  when  the  king  and 
the  priest  had  more  power  than  God  upon  the 
senses  and  the  imagination.  Men  believed  in 
nothing  that  they  could  not  see  and  handle. 
The  Church  was  busy  in  bringing  all  high  and 
ineffable  truth  into  a  sensuous  condition. 

Over  against  this  magnificent  Rome,  with 
its  cathedrals,  altars,  robed  priests,  processions, 
gorgeous  ceremonies,  filling  the  eye,  and 
bringing  down  the  spiritual  man  to  the 
bondage  of  the  senses,  Calvin  wrought  out  a 
theology  of  thought,  logical,  elaborate,  com 
plete.  When  men  pointed  to  the  visible 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Church,  its  flowing  rituals  and  its  impressive 
trappings,  and  asked  tauntingly,  "  Where  is 
your  religion  ?  There  is  ours,  visible  to 
all  men,  sublime  and  beautiful,"  Calvin  pointed 
to  his  system,  invisible  yet  powerful,  ad 
dressed  to  reason,  not  sense;  a  system  that 
aroused  fear,  that  developed  imagination, 
that  moved  in  men's  thoughts  as  laws  of 
nature  move  upon  the  earth.  His  God 
was  full-orbed  in  power,  and  His  light  and 
glory  extinguished  the  false  lights  of  the 
throne  and  the  altar.  It  was  a  time  when 
nations  were  being  dashed  in  pieces  as  a 
potter's  vessel;  and  Calvin's  God  was  the 
very  divine  iconoclast,  going  forth  to  over 
throw  idols  and  polluted  temples,  and  drive 
headlong  all  usurpers  of  His  prerogatives. 
His  attributes  as  expounded  by  Calvin  did 
not  shock  the  rude  ideas  of  that  day.  They 
only  concentred  in  God  the  barbaric  authority 
to  which  men  had  wearily  and  long  submitted 
in  magistrates  and  masters.  Better  one  despot 
than  a  thousand.  That  system,  which  now 
oppresses  the  conscience  and  shocks  the 
moral  sense,  in  its  day  emancipated  reason, 
developed  the  moral  sense,  and  inspired  men 
with  ideas  that  led  to  liberty  in  the  State  and 
in  the  Church. 

1 68 


William  Ellery  Channing 

But,  like  the  steel  armour  of  our  fathers, 
admirable  in  its  day,  it  can  be  no  longer 
worn.  The  spirit  of  God  has  advanced  men 
beyond  the  need  of  such  an  instrument.  It 
must  be  placed  in  the  hall,  or  gathered  in 
military  museums,  with  broadswords,  spears, 
culverins,  and  the  whole  panoply  of  antiquated 
weapons. 

Our  age  has  witnessed  and  is  still  rejoicing 
in  a  better  idea  of  justice.  There  has  been  a 
great  advance  in  our  day  in  the  conception  of 
justice,  as  an  emanation  of  sympathy  and  love, 
and  not  a  deification  of  combativeness  and 
destructiveness.  Justice  has  formerly  been 
made  vindictive  rather  than  vindicatory.  The 
principle  of  hate  has  ruled  in  civil  law,  in 
government,  in  theology,  and  in  the  churches. 
We  have  had  a  fighting,  not  a  loving  Chris 
tianity.  Repulsion  has  been  stronger  than 
attraction,  dislike  than  sympathy.  Upon  this 
dreary  winter,  spring  is  advancing.  It  has  not 
yet  conquered.  Plere  and  there  come  bluster 
ing  days,  to  renew  the  rigour  and  to  destroy 
this  new  life.  But  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
is  now  high  in  the  heavens.  The  days  are 
longer ;  the  light  advances,  and  the  warmth. 
All  things  are  tending  to  draw  men  to  each 
other.  The  things  in  which  men  agree  are 


Lectures  and  Orations 

increasingly  more  important  than  those  in 
which  they  differ.  Love  is  growing,  hate  is 
weakening. 

More  than  that,  I  think  in  the  past  one 
hundred  years — and  this,  the  birthday  of 
Channing,  marks  the  beginning  of  it — there 
has  not  only  been  a  change  in  the  spirit  of 
sects,  in  the  notions  of  government  and  in 
theology,  but  there  has  also  been  a  wonderful 
progress  in  true  religion.  If  you  measure 
religion  by  the  exact  forms  of  any  of  the 
highly  organized  churches, — our  mother, 
Rome,  and  her  eldest  daughter,  the  Episcopal 
Church ;  if  you  measure  it  by  dogma  and 
formality  and  ordinance,  in  the  different 
aspects  in  which  the  denominations  present 
it;  if  you  measure  its  condition  by  the 
Westminster  Catechism,  or  by  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  or  by  any  of  the  mediaeval  Confes 
sions,  or  by  the  hitherto  standing  claims  of 
any  of  the  organized  religious  bodies, — I 
think  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  is  a 
decadence  of  religion.  But  how?  When 
the  morning  star  begins  to  shine,  the  nimble 
lamplighters  of  our  cities  go  around  extinguish 
ing  one  gaslight  after  another.  They  were 
substitutes  for  daylight ;  but,  when  the  sun  is 
coming  up,  there  is  no  longer  use  for  gaslight. 

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William  Ellery  Charming 

And  shall  any  man  say,  "  They  arc  putting 
out  the  light  of  the  world  "  ?  They  are  putting 
out  the  artificial  lights  that  help  us  through 
the  night,  but  are  they  destroying  daylight  ? 

If  religion  means  veneration,  there  is  not  so 
much  as  there  was.  Our  own  institutions  do 
not  tend  to  breed  veneration.  Our  children 
at  fifteen  years  of  age  know  as  much  as  we  do, 
and  govern  us  at  twenty !  Our  magistrates 
have  but  little  dignity.  We  put  them  up 
merely  that  we  may  pelt  them.  To  nominate 
a  man  for  office  in  our  land  is  to  stigmatize 
him ;  and  to  elect  him  is  to  damn  him !  There 
is  nothing  old  in  America  but  trees ;  and  peo 
ple  do  not  care  for  them.  For  it  is  with  us  as 
of  old,  when  a  man  was  accounted  great  as  he 
lifted  up  an  axe  against  the  trees ;  and  almost 
nothing  in  the  body  politic  is  sacred  in  our 
scrambling,  active  land,  where  men  are  build 
ing  every  one  for  himself.  There  is  little 
veneration  here ;  and,  if  that  is  religion,  heaven 
help  us  !  We  have  tried  to  breed  it.  We 
build  big  churches  with  small  windows.  We 
put  out  with  paint  what  little  light  can  get 
through.  We  have  imitations  of  grotesque 
things  that  have  come  down  five  hundred  or 
one  thousand  years,  and  we  try  to  dress  as  they 
used  to  dress  before  they  knew  how  to  dress  ! 
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Lectures  and  Orations 

In  every  way  possible,  we  are  trying  to  coax  the 
old  mediaeval  spirit  of  veneration.  We  cannot 
do  it ;  it  is  not  bred  in  our  day.  It  will  not  live 
in  our  land.  The  common  school  is  against  it; 
the  elective  franchise  is  against  it ;  the  whole 
of  our  society  is  against  it.  So  dangerous  are 
the  lapses  of  men  now  in  theology  that  we  are 
all  of  us  trying  to  stop  that ;  and  we  are  re 
furbishing  the  old  armour,  and  the  word  is 
going  out :  "  We  must  reprint  the  old  doc 
trines,  and  we  must  introduce  a  shrewder 
economy  in  our  seminaries,  and  we  must 
screw  up  the  system.  It  is  getting  loose  and 
shackly."  The  engineers  are  screwing  it  up 
here  and  there,  and  by  every  means  striving 
to  make  it  work  as  it  used  to  work.  There  is 
such  a  wide-spread  doctrinal  defection — with 
one  or  two  exceptions — that,  if  you  are  to 
measure  the  progress  of  religion  by  the  exact 
agreement  of  men  to  confession  and  catechism, 
woe  be  to  religion  ! 

But  religion  is  of  the  heart.  It  is  a  living 
force.  Books  do  not  contain  it,  but  only  de 
scribe  it.  Creeds  and  catechisms  may  be  hon 
oured  while  religion  is  perishing  ;  and  religion 
may  be  increasing  in  scope  and  sweetness 
while  creeds  are  waning.  It  is  born  in  every 
generation,  and  in  every  heart  that  is  a  child 
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William  Ellery  Charming 

of  God ;  and  one  cannot  find  whether  men 
have  religion  or  not  by  bringing  them  to  the 
catechism,  or  by  asking  them  how  they  got  it. 
We  have  learned  one  thing,  and  that  is  that 
mankind  are  greater  than  all  the  governments 
of  mankind.  We  have  learned  that  the  man 
is  more  than  the  church,  and  that  the  church 
was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  church. 
We  have  learned  that,  if  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  religion,  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  ma 
chinery.  We  have  learned  that  religion  is 
loving  God  and  loving  our  fellow  men. 

Now,  then,  tested  by  that,  is  there  more 
or  less  religion  in  the  age  in  which  we  live 
than  there  was  in  the  days  that  are  gone  by  ? 
I  say,  more.  I  call  the  whole  civilized  world 
to  witness  that,  although  there  is  much  of  the 
lion,  of  the  bear,  of  the  eagle,  and  of  the  vul 
ture  yet  in  mankind,  and  though  these  foul 
beasts  or  birds  float  on  our  national  banners 
and  represent  much  of  the  under  economy  of 
animalism  among  men,  yet  to  an  extent  that 
was  never  known  before  in  the  world,  there  is 
the  spirit  of  sympathy  of  man  with  man  dis 
closed.  Never  before  has  God  been  wor 
shipped  by  the  serving  of  His  children  as  He 
is  to-day.  Never  before  was  there  such  an 
adhesion  as  there  is  to-day  to  the  words  of 
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Lectures  and  Orations 

Christ,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  do  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these,  ye  do  it  unto  Me."  We  worship 
a  Christ  that  stands  by  the  poor,  by  the  slave, 
by  the  prisoner,  and  by  the  emigrant  who 
lands,  weary  and  discouraged,  on  our  shores. 
We  worship  a  Christ  that  identifies  Himself 
with  the  low  and  the  needy  and  the  suffering. 
We  worship  a  Christ  that  is  in  the  hospital 
among  the  sick.  If  worshipping  Christ  is  wor 
shipping  God,  I  am  orthodox.  I  wish  others 
were.  I  aver  that  Christ  was  never  worshipped 
so  much  as  He  is  to-day  by  the  love,  by  the 
sympathy,  and  by  the  self-sacrificing  helpful 
ness  which  we  bestow  upon  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  men.  Never  before  did  the 
human  race  see  a  whole  age  and  an  organized 
nation  putting  their  hands  under  the  very 
bottom  of  society,  and  attempting  to  lift,  not 
the  crowned  heads,  not  the  middle  classes, 
not  the  burghers  and  rich  men,  but  mankind 
from  the  very  lowest,  taking  the  whole  house 
up  from  its  foundation.  And  while  I  see  all 
reformatory  societies  attempting  to  reclafm 
men  from  intemperance,  to  cleanse  our  pris 
ons,  to  purge  out  vice,  to  restrain  all  wrong ; 
while  I  see  the  tendency  everywhere  to  send, 
by  showers  of  gold,  the  Gospel  to  benighted 
nations,  and  to  promote  the  mission  cause 
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William  Ellery  Channing 

at  home,  and  to  educate  the  slave  and  every 
living  creature, — shall  a  man  stand  by  and 
tell  me  that  religion  is  going  down?  A 
religion  that  lets  these  alone  is  no  religion ; 
and  a  religion  by  which  any  man  or  com 
munity  takes  care  of  these,  and  in  the  love  of 
God  sympathizes  with  man,  and  cares  for 
him, — that  is  the  true  religion. 

When  the  potato  was  first  sent  to  Ireland, 
they  planted  it,  and  did  not  know  where  to 
look  for  the  fruit.  And  when  it  blossomed 
and  bore  its  little  seed  pods,  they  boiled  these 
pods,  and  ate  them,  and  did  not  like  potatoes ! 
If  they  had  gone  to  the  root  of  the  matter, 
they  would  have  liked  them.  They  learned 
that  later.  So  there  are  very  many  men  who 
taste  religion  as  it  is  shown  in  the  pod,  if  I 
may  so  say ;  and  they  do  not  like  this  church, 
that  doctrine,  this  ordinance,  and  that  economy. 
What  if  you  do  not  ?  These  are  not  crops : 
they  are  merely  the  tools  by  which  we  try  to 
raise  crops.  They  are  the  machinery  by  which 
we  work,  and  not  the  thing  for  which  we  are 
working,  I  never  ate  millstones  ;  but  I  have 
eaten  that  which  millstones  have  produced. 
And  the  things  that  grind  out  human  love  and 
kindness, — all  may  be  defective;  but  the  flour 
is  the  thing.  And  I  say  that  never  before 
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Lectures  and  Orations 

was  there  so  much  holy  flour  as  there  is  to 
day. 

There  is  one  more  thing  that  I  think  is  true, 
and  of  which  this  celebration  is  significant ; 
namely,  that  there  is  no  statement  of  religion 
like  religion  itself.  You  cannot  put  into  words 
the  essential  verities  of  religion.  When  you 
have  used  all  the  language  that  the  vocabulary 
can  give  you,  and  tacked  word  to  word,  you 
cannot  have  made  a  belt  that  will  go  around 
the  infinity  and  eternity  of  God.  When  by 
every  figure  that  is  known  to  fallible  men,  by 
all  the  sweetness  of  a  mother's  love,  by  all 
the  purity  of  a  child's  love,  by  all  the  fervour  . 
of  noble  souls  just  mated,  you  have  tried  to 
represent  God ;  when  you  have  gathered  up 
all  things  that  are  resplendent,  and  made  them 
patterns  of  divine  love, — you  have  done,  as  it 
were,  nothing.  The  love  of  God  that  fills 
eternity,  and  that  is  marching  down  through 
eternities,  bearing  benison  and  benediction  to 
countless  spheres  of  existence,  doubtless,  be 
sides  our  own, — when  you  attempt  to  put  it 
into  language  and  represent  it  by  figures 
gathered  by  the  limited  experiences  of  men, 
it  is  as  if  you  undertook  to  find  timber  for 
your  navy  in  moss,  and  as  if  you  undertook  to 
decorate  your  cathedrals  with  the  inconspicu- 


William  Ellery  Channing 

ous  flowers  and  plants  that  grow  too  small  but 
for  the  microscope.  God  is  too  big  for  lan 
guage,  too  big  for  representation  by  human 
experience. 

The  thing  that  most  nearly  represents  God 
is  a  man  that  is  living  like  God.  And  no 
man  can  draw  that  portrait  or  put  it  into 
language.  We  can  see  it,  and  we  can  rejoice 
in  it ;  but,  after  all,  the  man  that  is  like  God  is 
the  best  catechism  and  the  best  confession  of 
faith.  And  we  have  learned  one  thing, — 
that,  when  we  see  such  a  man,  he  is  God's, 
and  he  is  ours.  "  All  things  are  yours,"  says 
Paul.  On  that  ground,  I  am  as  good  a 
Catholic  as  there  is  in  this  world,  except  the 
pope  and  the  cardinals  and  the  bishops,  and 
their  doctrines.  And  from  my  ownership  of 
every  saintly  woman  and  every  saintly  man 
no  one  can  hinder  me.  They  are  mine,  be 
cause  they  are  God's  ;  and  I  revere  them  and 
love  them.  There  is  a  vast  amount  of  true 
theology  in  the  good  living  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  There  are  men  that  rebuke  our 
lukewarmness  and  our  lives  by  the  nobility  of 
theirs, — multitudes  of  them  ;  and  they  are  all 
right.  Whatever  the  church  may  be  that 
makes  them,  theirs  is  the  true  theology.  I 
go  from  that  into  the  Episcopal  Church.  It  is 
177 


Lectures  and  Orations 

enough  for  me  that  she  gave  me  my  mother. 
Than  that  there  can  be  no  farther  argument. 
The  church  that  yields  such  blessings  is  not 
a  church  that  I  can  contest,  whatever  her 
machinery  may  be.  I  ask :  "  What  are  the 
products?  Where  are  the  saints,  men  and 
women  ?  "  If  they  are  Christlike,  they  are 
all  right.  I  go  into  the  Unitarian  Church. 
I  want  no  better  Christians  than  I  find  there. 
They  are  orthodox,  sound,  by  every  Christian 
man  and  every  Christian  woman  among  them 
that  makes  piety  beautiful  in  the  eyes  of  man 
kind.  I  go  into  the  Swedenborgian  Church. 
Brother  Ager  is  a  good  enough  Christian  for 
me.  He  is  soundly  orthodox,  whatever  he 
believes.  No  matter  about  that.  I  don't 
care  what  a  man  believes.  What  is  he? 
That  is  my  question.  I  say  that  what  a  man 
is  is  his  confession  of  faith.  A  man's  life  is 
more  important  than  any  statement  of  the 
philosophy  of  that  life,  or  of  the  machinery 
by  which  that  life  was  brought  into  existence. 
It  is  true  that  some  schools  are  better  than 
other  schools,  that  some  methods  of  teaching 
are  very  likely  to  be  better  than  some  others, 
that  some  statements  of  doctrine  are  better 
than  some  other  statements  of  doctrine  in 
their  aptitude  to  carry  men  on  and  up- 


William  Ellery  Channing 

ward.  I  will  not  discriminate  as  to  which  I 
think  is  the  better,  though  I  can  well  under- 
stand  that  men  find  a  difference  between  one 
and  another;  but  this  I  say,  that  when  any 
man  has  been  made  a  Christian,  luminous  of 
heaven,  he  does  not  belong  to  the  church  that 
bred  him :  he  belongs  to  that  Church  Universal 
which  has  no  exposition  but  in  the  sympa 
thies  of  the  universe ;  and  he  belongs  to  you 
and  to  me.  And,  Mr.  Chairman,  don't  take 
on  airs,  as  if  Channing  was  your  man.  He 
is  my  man  as  much  as  he  is  yours.  I  have 
seen  considerable  of  that  spirit  here  to 
night, — and  I  feel  bound  as  a  Christian  to 
fight  it, — as  if  you  had  a  man  that  you  would 
let  us  come  and  look  at,  as  if  we  might  be 
permitted  to  come  on  this  platform  and  wor 
ship  your  hero.  I  thank  God  that  you  have 
some  such  men  to  worship  and  to  present  to 
us.  It  is  a  sign  that  there  is  a  sort  of  grace 
with  you.  Your  doctrines  may  be  very  im 
perfect  ;  but,  after  all,  there  is  a  grace  of  God 
that  goes  with  imperfection.  All  sorts  of 
instruments  have  been  employed  in  this  world. 
Oftentimes,  too,  the  instrument  has  been  more 
than  the  prophet,  as  when  Balaam  went  forth 
on  his  famous  ride  of  old.  And,  since  all 
sorts  of  instruments  are  employed  by  the 
179 


Lectures  and  Orations 

good  God,  no  matter  what  the  instrument  is, 
it  is  the  man  that  is  created. 

Here  was  a  man,  in  a  dark  day,  in  a  day  of 
controversy,  in  a  day  in  which  men  stood 
very  differently  from  the  way  in  which  they 
stand  now ;  and  I  look  upon  that  godly  man 
and  see  a  lambent  flame  of  holiness.  I  see 
that  he  was  a  light  kindled  in  a  dark  place ; 
and  the  sweetness  of  his  humility  strikes  me. 
He  blushes  in  heaven  to  hear  what  is  said  of 
him  on  earth,  if  he  attends  to  it, — though  I 
think  likely  he  does  not.  He  was  a  good 
man.  If  he  had  been  in  the  Roman  Church, 
he  would  have  been  a  saint;  and  he  is  not 
less  a  saint,  because  he  was  in  the  Unitarian 
Church.  We  have  learned  that  man  is  a 
better  exposition  of  Christianity  than  doc 
trines,  or  any  of  the  various  instruments  of 
the  Church.  We  are  learning  to  receive  whom 
God  receives ;  and  whenever  a  man  shows 
that  he  is  acceptable  to  the  Master,  is  wearing 
His  spirit,  and  is  blessed  by  His  continual 
attendance,  that  man  is  sacred  to  us,  no  mat 
ter  to  what  denomination  he  may  belong.  A 
man  is  more  than  doctrine, — and  mankind  are 
more  than  church  and  more  than  government. 
Next  to  God,  the  only  valuable  things  in  this 
universe  are  living  men;  and  all  nature  is 
1 80 


William  Ellery  Charming 

prepared  to  take  care  of  them.  God  is  the 
Fountain  and  Cause  of  all  things ;  and  all 
nature  and  all  time  and  all  providence  and  all 
grace  are  so  many  ministering  servants  to 
develop  manhood  in  men.  And  the  only  dif 
ference  there  can  possibly  be  in  our  view  of 
God  is  this :  those  views  of  God  that  tend  to 
beat  men  down,  and  to  beat  down  their  moral 
sense,  you  may  be  sure  are  false  views ;  while 
the  views  of  God  that  tend  to  lift  men  up, 
to  inspire  them  with  a  holy  horror  of  sin,  to 
lead  them  to  aspire  to  holiness,  and  to  give 
them  a  willingness  to  do  kindness  at  their 
own  expense,  to  live  for  mankind,  and  if  need 
be  to  shed  their  blood, — such  views  are  ortho 
dox,  however  defective  may  be  the  system 
from  which  they  spring. 

When  we  look  back,  then,  one  hundred 
years,  what  do  we  see  ?  The  greatest  change, 
I  think,  that  has  been  produced  in  any  hun 
dred  since  the  Advent;  and,  when  I  look 
forward  from  this  standpoint,  it  seems  to  me 
that  we  stand  just  about  in  the  month  of 
April  in  the  history  of  the  world,  as  we  do  in 
this  year.  We  have  had  our  dead  winter,  we 
have  had  our  blustering,  controversial  month 
of  March,  and  now  we  have  our  month  of 
April,  which  does  not  know  exactly  whether 
181 


Lectures  and  Orations 

it  has  left  March  or  whether  it  is  entering 
into  May ;  but  it  is  on  the  way  towards  sum 
mer,  and  soon  there  will  come  the  blossoms  of 
May  already  anticipated;  and  after  that  will 
come  June,  the  opal  of  the  year;  and  then 
the  summer ;  and  then  the  harvest.  We  are 
on  the  full  march ;  and,  therefore,  instead  of 
looking  back  to  the  leeks  and  onions  of  or 
thodoxy  in  Egypt,  the  spirit  of  God,  the 
spirit  of  philosophy,  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  the 
spirit  of  true  religion,  is  to  forget  the  things 
that  are  behind,  and  to  press  forward,  towards 
the  mark,  for  the  prize  of  our  high  calling  in 
Christ  Jesus. 


182 


VI 

CHARLES  SUMNER1 

r  I  ^HE  best  gift  of  God  to  nations  is  the  gift 
JL  of  upright  men — especially  upright  men 
for  magistrates,  statesmen,  and  rulers.  How 
bountiful  soever  the  heavens  may  be ;  how 
rich  the  earth  may  be  in  harvest;  though 
every  wind  of  heaven  waft  prosperity  to  its 
ports,  till  the  land  is  crowded  with  warehouses 
stuffed  to  repletion  with  treasure,  that  country 
is  poor  whose  citizens  are  not  noble,  and  that 
republic  is  poor  which  is  not  governed  by 
noble  men  selected  by  its  citizens. 

The  signs  of  decay  in  the  life  of  a  nation 
show  themselves  as  soon  as  anywhere  else  in 
the  character  of  the  men  who  are  called  to 
govern  it.  When  they  seek  their  own  ends, 
and  not  the  public  weal ;  when  they  abandon 
principles,  and  administer  according  to  the 
personal  interest  of  cliques  and  parties  ;  when 
they  forsake  righteousness,  and  call  upon 
greedy,  insatiable  selfishness  for  counsel ;  and 

1  Died  March  11,1874.  Sunday  evening  discourse  in 
Plymouth  Church. 

183 


Lectures  and  Orations 

when  the  laws  and  the  whole  framework  of 
the  government  are  but  so  many  instruments 
of  oppression  and  of  wrong,  then  the  nation 
cannot  be  far  from  decadence.  When  God 
means  to  do  well  by  a  nation  that  has  back 
slidden,  among  the  earliest  tokens  of  His  benef 
icent  intent  is  the  restoration  of  men  of  integ 
rity  and  of  honour — men  who  live  for  their 
fellows,  and  not  for  themselves. 

I  propose  to  look  back  a  little  to-night 
over  that  great  period  of  decadence  with  which 
so  many  of  us  are  too  familiar,  but  which  must 
not  be  forgotten,  lest  the  lesson  which  it 
teaches  should  also  perish. 

The  beginnings  of  our  land,  as  you  remem 
ber,  were  eminently  religious.  Our  fathers 
came  hither  to  establish  a  new  and  notable 
dispensation,  seeking  to  lay  it  upon  founda 
tions  of  righteousness.  For  generations  they 
succeeded ;  and  here  was  developed  that  con 
summate  form  of  liberty  which  carried  out,  as 
it  could  not  be  carried  out  in  antiquity,  the 
idea  of  the  freedom  of  the  whole  people. 

It  was  here  that  France  lit  her  torch  ;  but 
she  knew  not  how  to  follow  our  example.  To 
a  large  extent  it  was  from  this  land  that  liberty 
derived  in  Europe  its  modern  impetus.  We 
ourselves  derived  the  seed  of  liberty  from 
184 


Charles  Sumner 

Holland  and  from  England  ;  but  we  planted  it 
here  under  a  free  sky  and  upon  a  noble  soil ; 
and  from  this  seed  which  we  brought  hither 
we  reared  a  harvest ;  and  we  sent  back  and 
resowed  in  France,  in  Germany,  and  through 
out  Europe,  it  would  seem  now,  the  same 
blessed  truths  which  have  emancipated  us. 

But  "  when  the  sons  of  God  came  to  present 
themselves  before  the  Lord,  Satan  came  also 
among  them  ;  "  and  when  our  institutions  were 
framed  for  liberty  and  for  righteousness,  there 
was  permitted  to  be  twined  among  them  an 
element  false  in  morals,  corrupt  in  political 
economy,  and  utterly  subversive  of  all  rights 
and  doctrines  of  human  liberty.  And  there 
came  to  be  developed  also  a  procedure  which, 
while  it  gave  partial  benefit  to  a  favoured  class, 
corrupted  the  whole  system  of  industry,  not 
alone  in  the  immediate  field  where  this  pro 
cedure  was  established — namely,  in  the  slave- 
holding  States  of  the  Union — but  indirectly, 
and  by  the  circulation,  as  it  were,  in  the  whole 
body  politic.  For  slavery  is  essential  treason 
to  free  labour,  and  to  the  rights  of  the  work 
ing  man,  the  world  over.  It  is  esteemed  bad 
enough  for  labour  to  be  indebted  to  capital ; 
but  it  was  worse  a  thousand  times  when  cap 
ital  owned  not  only  labour  but  the  labourer 
185 


Lectures  and  Orations 

too;  and  that  was  the  condition  over  the 
fairest  portion  of  this  continent. 

Organized  into  our  affairs,  the  principle  of 
slavery  influenced  national  history  in  such  a 
way  as  to  inevitably  produce  interior  antago 
nism,  clash,  and  grating  of  interests.  When  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  come  together, 
and  their  waters  push  each  other  every  whither, 
and  their  face  is  covered  with  eddies  and 
wrinkles,  it  is  in  vain  for  the  Mississippi  to  re 
proach  the  Missouri ;  and  it  is  in  vain  for  the 
eastward-coming  river  to  reproach  the  south 
ward-coming  river.  It  is  not  the  fault  of 
either  of  them  that  they  scowl  upon  each 
other.  There  is  a  law  that  makes  it  unavoid 
able.  So,  that  democracy  which  developed 
freedom  in  labour,  and  that  aristocracy  which 
developed  bondage  in  labour,  in  the  same 
government,  could  not  keep  their  hands  off 
from  each  other.  They  were  born  antagonists, 
and  conflict  between  them  was  a  necessity. 

There  was,  then,  this  latent  principle  of 
antagonism  which  threatened  our  existence*. 
In  the  conflict  which  ensued,  and  which  in 
creased  as  the  elements  of  liberty  and  slavery 
ripened  into  full  expression  in  national  life, 
there  was  more  and  more  a  corrupting  of  the 
morals  and  the  conscience  of  the  whole  nation. 
1 86 


Charles  Sumner 

The  entire  South  was  corrupted  by  perver 
sion  ;  for  what  the  fathers  believed  to  be  a 
permissible  evil,  to  be  done  away  in  the  course 
of  time,  their  descendants,  when  it  became 
profitable  in  the  fields  of  both  money  and 
politics,  turned  and  justified.  Although  in  the 
early  days  the  opponents  of  slavery  were 
eminently  the  ablest  men  of  the  South,  in  the 
more  recent  days  all  the  leading  men  of  the 
South — her  scholars,  her  poets,  her  publicists, 
and  her  ministers — all  joined  in  one  great  out 
cry  to  justify  slavery,  and  to  make  it  the  very 
foundation  of  national  life,  as  well  as  the  very 
philosophy  of  national  thrift.  So  the  whole 
South  went  wrong,  under  the  influence  of 
slavery  ;  and  it  was  taught  in  her  schools  and 
her  colleges,  until  a  whole  generation  had  been 
brought  up  from  the  cradle  in  the  doctrine  of 
its  essential  beneficence,  and  of  its  wisdom  in 
political  economy.  It  is  in  vain  to  say  that 
the  people  of  the  South  did  not  believe  this 
doctrine.  The  younger  men  of  the  South  did 
believe  it.  It  came  to  them  almost  with  their 
growth.  But  none  the  less  were  they  per 
verted  and  corrupted  by  it. 

The  North  was  yet  more  corrupted,  because 
her  interests  led  her  largely  to  placate  and 
defer  to  the  South.  Nothing  can  be  more 


Lectures  and  Orations 

melancholy,  particularly  for  the  Eastern  part  of 
our  land,  than  to  remember  the  public  senti 
ment  which  existed  in  churches,  when  it  was 
made  an  offense  that  almost  ostracized  a  man 
to  plead  in  a  prayer-meeting  for  slaves  ;  when 
men  bated  their  breath  in  speaking  of  human 
rights  ;  when  pulpits  not  only  were  dumb,  but 
were  employed  very  largely  in  the  defense  or 
palliation  of  slavery,  or  only  admitted  in  an 
underbreath  that  it  was  an  evil — an  evil  which 
must  be  borne  with .  patiently.  If  there  was 
not  apology  for  slavery,  there  was  at  least  a 
guilty  silence  concerning  it  during  a  long 
period  in  the  pulpits  of  the  North. 

The  benevolent  associations  of  the  North — 
especially  those  men  who  were  relied  upon  to 
carry  out  the  essential  parts  of  their  work — 
were  wrapt  up  in  complicity  with  this  great 
mischief,  and  refused  to  bear  their  testimony. 
I  will  not  go  into  detail ;  but  you  will  remem 
ber  how  pitiful  was  the  position  of  the  great 
missionary  and  publishing  societies  of  the 
Christian  community  in  the  North.  Follow 
ing  their  lead,  the  commercial  publishers  took 
out  of  their  publications  of  every  kind  those 
great  truths  which  had  been  the  meat  of  gen 
erations  before ;  and  in  their  reading-books 
nothing  was  said  of  liberty  that  could  be  con- 
188 


Charles  Sumner 

strued  as  condemning  American  slavery.  In 
none  of  their  books  for  the  use  of  schools  was 
there  anything  that  could  offend  the  South. 
So  fashion,  commerce,  religion,  and  politics 
throughout  the  North  were  lowered  in  tone ; 
and  they  did  obeisance  to  slavery.  In  politics, 
if  possible,  it  was  worse  than  anywhere  else,  by 
reason  of  ambition  and  political  aspiration. 
From  the  peculiar  position  of  affairs,  no  man 
in  the  North  who  hoped  for  preferment  dared 
to  speak  on  the  subject  of  liberty.  Every 
young  lawyer  was  warned  not  to  give  way  to 
intemperate  enthusiasm  in  favour  of  freedom, 
because  it  would  certainly  block  up  all  hope  of 
his  advancement.  No  man  could  hope  to  go 
to  J;he  Legislature  of  the  State,  and  certainly 
not  to  the  national  Legislature,  if  he  dared  to 
utter  an  honest  sentiment  of  liberty.  Men 
were  marked ;  and  if  they  desired  ready  ad 
vancement,  not  simply  must  they  be  silent  in 
regard  to  the  sacredness  of  freedom,  but  they 
must  say  some  kind  and  conciliatory  things 
for  slavery.  When  they  did  this,  they  were 
"  sound" 

Therefore,  it  came  to  pass  that  there  was 

bred  a  generation  of  men  of  whom  the  fathers 

in   the   upper  sphere  were   ashamed.     There 

were  men  in  the  North  who  were  corrupted 

189 


Lectures  and  Orations 

by  the  bribes  which  were  presented  to  them 
by  slavery.  There  were  political  eunuchs, 
emasculated  men,  fearing,  calculating,  tergiver 
sating.  We  never  had  a  period  of  more  pro 
found  national  humiliation  than  that  between 
1 8  30  and  1860. 

I  myself  came  into  public  life  about  the  year 
1837,  and  I  was  a  witness  of  this  condition  of 
things  ;  so  that  I  speak  from  my  own  knowl 
edge.  The  great  struggle  at  that  time,  I  re 
member  full  well,  was  for  liberty  of  thought 
and  of  expression.  I  was  tutored.  I  had 
friends  in  high  places  who  took  me  aside,  and 
whispered  in  my  ear,  saying,  "  Prudence ;  cau 
tion  ;  you  have  opportunity ;  good  society  is 
open  to  you :  do  not  blight  your  prospects. 
There  is  a  chance  for  you  in  public  life :  do  not 
by  rash  speaking  spoil  your  opportunity  of 
ascending.  Wait ;  consider ;  let  your  thoughts 
ripen."  Muzzling  and  suffocation  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  I  remember  distinctly  when 
Birney's  press  was  mobbed,  in  Cincinnati,  and 
dragged  through  the  streets,  and  thrown  info 
the  Ohio  River.  I  remember  perfectly  the 
night  when  I  was  one  of  those  who  patrolled 
the  streets,  armed,  to  defend  the  houses  of  the 
poor  coloured  people  in  that  city.  I  remem 
ber  when  no  prayer-meeting  or  church- gather- 
190 


Charles  Sumner 

ing  allowed  men  to  speak  on  the  subject  of 
liberty.  I  remember  when  in  Presbytery  and 
Synod  it  was  considered  a  heresy  to  advocate 
freedom.  I  remember  when  it  was  regarded 
as  next  to  treason  in  politics  for  a  man  to  be 
an  avowed  advocate  of  national  liberty. 

The  battle  began  in  the  North  on  the  ques 
tion  of  whether  liberty  of  thought,  liberty  of 
speech,  and  liberty  of  printing,  should  be  main 
tained  ;  and  we  went  through  days  when  the 
birds  of  fate  laid  addled  eggs — and  we  had  all 
we  wanted  of  them ;  days  of  darkness  and 
humiliation  and  disgrace. 

The  condition  of  Washington  from  1830  to 
1860  was  worse  than  the  court  of  Pharaoh 
while  he  held  the  Israelites  in  bondage.  I 
speak  not  of  its  want  of  thrift ;  I  speak  not  of 
its  slatternly  condition ;  I  speak  not  of  its  lack 
of  enterprise  ,  I  speak  not  of  the  smothering 
there  of  every  element  of  prosperity  :  I  speak 
of  the  moral  degradation  that  prevailed  there, 
and  of  the  rod  of  iron  which  was  held  over  the 
heads  of  all  the  men  who  went  thither.  Ag 
gressive  politics  was  there  the  order  of  the 
day.  Among  the  movements  in  this  direction 
was  the  passage  of  that  blessed  infamy,  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law.  1  say  blessed,  because 
that,  perhaps,  marked  the  time  when  reaction 
191 


Lectures  and  Orations 

really  set  in.  It  was  the  most  cruel  insult  to 
the  conscience  of  Northern  men,  and  the  most 
needless,  that  was  ever  offered  by  men  given 
over  by  fate  to  fatuity.  There  was  no  neces 
sity  for  it.  It  was  a  defiance  thrown  in  the 
face  of  the  North. 

Then  came  the  Kansas  struggle.  Then 
came  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 
Then  came  preparations  for  the  nationalization 
of  slavery.  Then  came  the  scheme  for  allow 
ing  slaves  to  go  in  transitu  through  the  North 
ern  States.  Changes  in  the  Constitution  were 
contemplated  by  which  slavery  should  be  as 
national  as  liberty. 

Those  were  the  elements  to  which  we  had 
come  when  the  war  surprised  us.  Dark  times 
were  upon  us  then.  I  remember  them  full 
well.  I  had  drunk  in  the  love  of  liberty  with 
the  breath  of  my  life.  I  do  not  remember  an 
hour,  in  my  very  boyhood,  in  which  my 
soul  was  not  on  fire  for  the  rights  of  men. 
I  never  wavered.  I  never  bent.  Although 
I  had  the  same  desire  for  kindness  and  con 
sideration  and  sympathy  which  every  gener 
ous  and  unperverted  heart  has,  I  never  saw 
the  moment  when  I  would  buy  popularity  or 
position  in  society  by  yielding  one  hair's, 
breadth  of  my  feeling  of  enthusiastic  conscience 
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Charles  Sumner 

for  human  rights,  and  for  rights  that  were 
sacred  in  proportion  as  they  were  denied  to 
men,  and  in  proportion  as  men  were  poor,  and 
crude,  and  unhelpful  of  themselves. 

I  well  remember  groaning  and  travailing  in 
spirit  through  all  those  dark  days.  I  did  not 
altogether  give  up  hope ;  but,  from  the  year 
1856  to  the  year  1860,  events  trod  so  fast  on 
each  other  that  I  confess  to  so  much  relin- 
quishtnent  of  hope  that  I  feared  that  per 
haps  God  meant  to  break  this  Nation  in  pieces 
to  teach  the  nations  of  the  earth  the  guilt 
and  delusion  of  human  bondage.  I  could  not 
bear  it ;  and  many  a  prayer  in  this  Plymouth 
house,  many  a  prayer  in  my  own  closet,  many 
a  prayer  in  the  highway,  and  many  a  prayer 
in  the  forest,  have  I  sent  up,  that  our  Na 
tion  might  be  spared  and  purged,  rather  than 
destroyed  for  the  benefit  of  posterity. 

The  mercy  of  God  was  seen  early,  in  raising 
up  an  army  of  men  to  resist  the  mischiefs  that 
were  threatened  to  the  country.  Private  men 
there  were  not  a  few  who  enlisted  in  the  cause 
of  freedom.  There  was  Garrison,  the  uncom 
promising  and  harsh  truth-teller.  There  was 
the  fiery  Weld,  like  a  second  Peter  the  Hermit. 
There  was  the  patrician  Phillips,  who  never 
spoke  without  piercing — whose  tongue  was  a 
193 


Lectures  and  Orations 

rapier.  There  was  May,  of  sweeter  heart,  and 
equally  noble  courage.  There  was  Jackson, 
who,  though  not  known,  was  one  of  those 
secret  sources  of  supply  and  influence  which 
determined  events.  There  were  the  two 
Tappans,  one  of  whom  was  long  with  us  in 
this  church.  There  was  Joshua  Leavitt,  a 
citizen  of  Brooklyn  until  a  year  or  two  ago, 
when  he  departed.  There  was  Rogers,  who 
died  of  a  broken  heart  early  in  the  struggle. 
There  were  Whittier,  and  Longfellow,  and 
Lowell,  and  Emerson,  and  others,  of  whom  I 
shall  speak  again. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  church  of  the  North 
was  corrupted.  At  one  period,  it  certainly 
was  guilty.  Nor  did  we  have  the  help  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  churches  of  the  North 
in  the  Eastern  States  until  a  comparatively 
late  period  of  the  conflict.  But  I  can  say,  to 
the  credit  of  the  New-school  Presbyterian 
church  of  the  West,  with  which  my  lot  was 
cast,  that,  before  the  year  1837,  it  was  effectu 
ally  leavened  by  liberty.  The  first  vote  that  I 
ever  cast  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  a  vote 
that  the  Presbytery  of  Indianapolis  should 
never  receive  a  licentiate,  or  should  never 
license  any  man,  who  held  slaves,  unless  he 
would  show  to  us  that  he  held  them  unwillingly, 
194 


Charles  Sumner 

and  that  he  would  as  soon  as  possible  give 
them  up.  My  impression  is  that  there  was 
not  in  the  New-school  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Indiana  a  minister  who  was  not  in  favour  of 
liberty.  Long  before  the  church  in  the  East 
was  aroused  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  the 
Western  church  stood  established  in  opposition 
to  it.  The  ministers  of  the  New-school 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  West  were  early 
and  faithful  labourers  for  emancipation. 

Of  public  men  we  shall  not  soon  forget  the 
mission  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Many  of 
you  have  forgotten  the  noble  tasks  imposed 
upon  himself  by  Governor  Slade.  There  was 
Gerrit  Smith  and  there  was  Alvan  Stewart. 
There  was  Joshua  Giddings,  who  early  espoused 
the  Anti-slavery  cause.  There  was  John  P. 
Hale,  who  served  it  in  the  Senate.  There  was 
Seward,  both  in  New  York  and  in  the  Senate. 
There  was  Greeley,  foremost  among  journalists. 
Still  later  was  Sumner ;  and  Thaddeus  Stevens  ; 
and  later  yet,  Lincoln,  and  his  great  war- 
minister,  Stanton.  These,  and  many  others 
whom  time  would  fail  me  to  mention,  were  the 
men  who  appeared,  to  turn  back  the  captivity, 
and  establish  the  glory  and  radiance  of  uni 
versal  liberty. 

Then  came  the  blinding  of  the  wise  and  the 
195 


Lectures  and  Orations 

weakening  of  the  strong.  Then  came  the 
fatuity  of  Southern  leadership.  Had  the 
leaders  of  the  South  been  wise,  we  might  still 
have  been  enthralled.  Time  and  again  it 
seemed  to  me  that,  not  being  wise,  if  they  had 
been  at  least  cunning,  they  still  would  have 
held  empire.  But  "  whom  the  gods  would 
destroy  they  first  make  mad." 

There  has  recently  been  an  extraordinary 
conjunction.  Two  men  have  departed  from 
us  in  the  same  week.  The  funeral  services  of 
the  one  overlap  those  of  the  other.  They  were 
both  representative  men — he  of  Boston  and  he 
of  Buffalo.  Mr.  Millard  Fillmore,  in  private 
life,  was  an  irreproachable  man,  amiable,  kind, 
and  universally  to  be  respected  ;  but  as  a  public 
man,  he  was  a  type  of  that  weakness  and 
cowardice  which  was  bred  in  the  North  by 
the  accursed  influence  of  slavery  in  the  South. 
Charles  Sumner  was  the  representative  man  of 
that  reactionary  spirit  which  was  developed  by 
liberty  contending  for  its  old  rights  and  for  its 
old  ground.  These  two  men  have  died  almost* 
at  the  same  time ;  and  although  I  would  not 
invade  the  sanctity  of  the  grave,  it  befits  his 
torical  reminiscence  that  these  two  antithet 
ical  men,  one  representing  the  old,  and  the  other 
representing  the  new,  within  the  period  of  a 
196 


Charles  Sumner 

week  going  out  from  the  generation  of  the 
living,  should  be  mentioned  in  this  contrast. 

Personally,  privately,  I  honour  Mr.  Fillmore ; 
but  as  a  public  man  he  had  no  political  con 
science.  He  was  without  any  apparent  sym 
pathy  for  any  of  those  principles  on  which  this 
great  Nation  was  founded.  He  gave  to  a  party 
— a  miserable  party — that  which  belonged  to 
the  higher  interests  of  humanity  and  of  man 
kind.  He  gave  up  Liberty  to  be  crucified 
between  Southern  Slavery  and  Northern 
Mammon ;  and  then  washed  his  hands,  and 
said,  "  I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just 
person." 

Of  another  sort  was  Charles  Sumner.  By 
his  birth,  by  his  education,  by  his  social  sur 
roundings,  he  was  fitted  to  be  an  aristocrat ; 
nor  was  his  disposition  averse  to  such  a  place 
and  title,  for  by  nature  he  was  self-considering. 
He  was  so  intense  in  his  own  convictions  as  to 
become  arrogant,  and  impose  his  views  upon 
others  with  a  species  of  oratorical  despotism. 
But  from  the  beginning  of  his  life  a  romantic 
moral  sense  allied  him  to  justice,  to  rectitude ; 
and  since  in  our  day  justice  was  most  flagrantly 
violated  by  slavery,  his  love  of  justice  and  of 
truth  took  him,  to  his  honour  and  to  the  glory 
of  mankind,  out  from  his  class,  and  away  from 
197 


Lectures  and  Orations 

aristocracy,  and  made,  essentially,  an  intellec 
tual  democrat  of  him.  Personally  he  never  was 
democratic.  Intellectually  he  became  so,  by 
the  force  of  the  struggle  of  the  day  in  which 
he  lived. 

I  cannot  but  call  to  mind  how  strangely, 
and  how  very  nobly,  the  old  elect  families  of 
the  commonwealth  of  the  glorious  old  State 
of  Massachusetts  behaved.  They  were  a 
genuine  aristocracy,  both  of  wealth  and  of 
historic  association ;  and  yet,  what  more  noble 
man  of  the  people  was  there  in  Massachusetts 
than  Adams  ?  Where  have  we  found  a  man 
more  nobly  allied  to  liberty  in  the  day  of  its 
peril  than  he  was  ?  What  higher  credit  rested 
upon  any  household  than  that  which  came 
from  the  name  of  Quincy  ?  Fathers  and  sons 
— how  true  they  were  !  Aristocrats  do  you 
call  them  ?  They  were  the  truest  democrats  ! 

Longfellow,  naturally  tender  and  refined, 
shrinking  from  struggle  and  from  the  rude 
rush  of  unwashed  multitudes,  did  not  disdain 
to  set  his  harp,  in  the  earliest  hours,  and  sing 
^ongs  of  liberty,  when  it  was  to  bring  upon 
him  discords  and  howlings,  and  not  the  music 
of  praise.  Emerson,  the  calm,  the  observa 
tional,  the  coolly  reflecting,  had  not  warmth 
enough  to  make  him  an  enthusiast  in  religion ; 
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Charles  Sumner 

but  he  had  patriotism  and  humanity  to  make 
him  bear  steadfast  witness  in  the  teeth  of 
slavery.  Whittier,  the  beautiful  singer  who 
wraps  indignation  and  wrath  about  with  such 
gentleness  of  spirit,  Quaker-like — he  could 
write  "  Ichabod "  on  the  great  name  of 
Webster  and  doom  him  as  though  he  had 
struck  him  with  lightning,  and  yet  all  the 
time  could  seem  as  sweet  as  the  Gospel.  And 
there  was  the  elegant  patrician,  the  son  of 
aristocratic  sires,  born  sovereign,  full  of 
culture  and  of  exquisite  refinement,  a  noble 
man — Phillips,  who  put  aside  all  ambitions, 
who  devoted  himself  to  the  thankless  task  of 
speaking  to  mobs,  and  who,  through  good  re 
port  and  through  evil  report,  carried  his  lance, 
and  never  once  had  it  shivered  or  cast  vilely 
away,  and  lived  to  see  triumphant  the  cause 
which  he  loved. 

In  this  band,  of  which  I  have  not  enumer 
ated  the  half,  belonged  Charles  Sumner ;  and 
by  force  of  circumstances  he  became  its  leader, 
being  advanced  to  eminent  trusts.  He  came 
forth  at  the  time  when  such  men  as  Story, 
Webster,  Choate,  and  Everett  were  the  heroes 
of  Massachusetts.  I  remember  that  it  was  as 
much  as  a  man's  life  was  worth  then  to  speak 
in  derogation  of  Daniel  Webster ;  but  how  do 
199 


Lectures  and  Orations 

men  feel  respecting  him  to-day?  I  remember 
when  Choate  was  as  brilliant  as  a  star.  Now 
he  is  as  a  meteor,  the  memory  of  which  has 
gone  with  its  radiance.  And  Everett — his 
last  days  were  his  best  days ;  and  all  that  he 
did  in  elegant  literature  was  not  so  much  as 
he  did  when  he  wrote  in  Mr.  Bonner's  Ledger 
for  the  people, — because,  then,  for  the  first 
time,  I  think,  Edward  Everett  stood  among 
common  folks,  in  sympathy  with  them,  and 
employed  his  culture,  and  reason,  and  taste, 
and  genius,  for  the  masses.  In  all  the  great 
and  masterful  struggles  for  liberty,  and  for 
the  redemption  of  our  land,  neither  Choate 
nor  Webster  nor  Everett  was  found  in  the 
van. 

Charles  Sumner  was  endowed  by  nature 
with  a  noble  presence.  He  was  physically  of 
a  most  manly  type.  He  had  an  admirably 
constituted  mind ;  and  yet  he  was  not  a  child 
of  genius.  His  learning,  joined  to  his  high 
moral  sense,  constituted  him  what  he  was. 
He  was  a  made  man.  He  was  well  versed  in ' 
law,  in  general  literature,  in  history,  in  art,  and 
in  belles  lettres.  He  was  fitted  in  all  these 
respects  to  carry  to  his  sphere  in  the  United 
States  Senate  great  influence  and  great  power. 
He  carried  there  an  industry  which  was  almost 
200 


Charles  Sumner 

unmatched,  and  a  straightforwardness  and  un 
changing  intent  which  was  well-nigh  without 
a  parallel.  The  meaning  of  his  life,  the  force 
of  all  his  enthusiasm,  was,  Bondage  must  be 
destroyed,  and  Liberty  must  be  established. 
For  that  he  became  a  martyr.  He  has  died, 
lately,  and  from  the  blow  in  1856  that  felled 
him  in  the  Senate  chamber,  that  darkened 
many  years  of  his  life,  and  that  gave  to  him  a 
shock  which  his  nervous  system  never  re 
covered  from.  Not  John  Brown  himself,  nor 
Lincoln,  was  more  a  martyr  for  liberty  than 
Charles  Sumner  has  been.  How  glorious 
such  a  death  as  his  !  How  well  it  beseems  his 
reputation!  Better  so.  Now,  no  pitying.  As, 
when  a  man  is  knighted,  the  sovereign  takes 
the  sword  and  smites  him  on  the  shoulder, 
and  says,  "  Rise  up,  Sir  Charles  !  "  so  the  club 
that  smote  Sumner  on  the  head  did  more  than 
knight  him — it  brought  him  to  honour  and  to 
immortality. 

His  devotion,  his  suffering,  his  perseverance, 
have  been  without  faltering.  He  filled  nobly 
the  place  where  God  put  him.  God  worked 
largely  by  him  in  the  restoration  of  conscience 
in  the  politics  and  statesmanship  of  this  Nation, 
and  to-day  the  whole  country  stands  still  to 
honour  the  name  of  Charles  Sumner. 
20 1 


Lectures  and  Orations 

No  son  bears  his  name.  No  family  will 
transmit  it  to  the  future.  No  descendant  will 
gaze  fondly  upon  his  pictured  face,  and  say, 
"  It  was  my  ancestor."  He  and  his  kindred 
are  cut  off.  But  the  old  State  that  gave  him 
birth,  and  that  he  served  so  nobly,  shall  cut 
his  name  in  letters  so  deep  that  time  itself  shall 
never  rub  them  out ;  and  no  man  shall  ever 
read  the  history  of  these  United  States  of 
America,  and  fail  to  see,  shining  brightly,  with 
growing  lustre  through  the  ages,  the  name  of 
Charles  Sumner.  No  son,  no  daughter,  weeps 
for  him;  but  down  a  million  dusky  cheeks 
there  are  tears  trickling.  They  whom  he 
served  weep  for  him.  He  was  the  Moses  that 
helped  to  bring  out  of  bondage  myriads  of  the 
oppressed,  who  to-day  feel  that  a  father  and  a 
protector  is  gone  up  from  among  them  ;  and  I 
would  rather  have  the  sympathy,  the  sorrow, 
and  the  prayers  of  the  smitten  than  all  the 
eulogies  and  all  the  honours  of  strong  and 
prosperous  men.  He  has  lived  well.  He  has 
died  well.  His  faults  will  go  down  with  him.* 
His  virtues  will  live  after  him.  He  joined 
himself  to  whatever  was  best  in  his  time. 
Now  he  is  with  God. 

Young  men,  let  me  speak  a  few  words  to 
you  in  respect  to  some  parts  of  the  example 
202 


Charles  Sumner 

of  this  man  who  has  departed  from  our 
midst. 

First,  you  will  take  notice  that  he  identified 
his  own  interests  with  the  noblest  interests 
of  his  country.  He  was  not  a  vermin  states 
man,  a  parasitic  statesman,  who  looked  upon 
his  country  but  as  a  carcass  from  which  he 
might  draw  blood.  In  a  venal,  corrupt  time, 
he  held  trust  and  power  unsullied  and  unsus 
pected.  Nothing  can  speak  better  for  the 
judgment  of  corrupt  men  than  the  fact  that 
they  never  dared  to  approach  him — for  Mr. 
Sumner  said,  with  inimitable  naivete,  "  Peo 
ple  speak  of  Washington  as  being  corrupt.  I 
do  not  believe  a  word  of  it ;  I  have  been  in 
Washington  fifteen  years  and  more,  and  I  have 
never  seen  a  particle  of  corruption  !  "  No,  he 
never  had.  He  was  the  last  man  that  any  cor 
rupt  schemer  dared  to  approach. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  men  should  be 
greedy,  and  selfish,  and  corrupt,  in  order  to  be 
prosperous.  The  foremost  man  of  his  time 
has  died  with  white  hands  and  a  clean 
heart. 

His  patriotism  sought  no  aggrandizement  of 

his  nation  by  defrauding  others.     His  was  not 

a  belligerent  nor  a  selfish  statesmanship.     He 

attempted  to  associate  this  land  of  his  love 

203 


Lectures  and  Orations 

with  the  best  interests  of  mankind  universally. 
He  was  an  advocate  of  peace.  He  preached 
and  inspired  the  sense  of  justice  among  na 
tions.  Known  well  in  America  and  in  Europe, 
and  esteemed  among  statesmen  and  courts  and 
lawyers  everywhere,  his  voice  was  against 
violence,  and  for  amity  based  upon  justice. 
His  ambition  was  not  for  the  "  manifest  des 
tiny  "  of  greediness ;  it  was  for  the  better 
destiny  of  temperance,  forbearance,  patience, 
and  plenitude  of  power  for  the  defense  of 
ourselves,  but  yet  more  for  the  defense  of  the 
poor  and  of  the  needy.  Everywhere  aggres 
sion  met  his  determined  resistance.  He  was 
a  statesman  because  he  based  all  procedure  on 
great  principles.  He  was  a  republican  states 
man  because  he  sought  the  welfare  of  all ;  and 
not  of  a  privileged  class.  In  his  case  this  is 
the  more  noticeable  because  his  personal  habits 
did  not  lead  him  to  love  association  with  com 
mon  people.  It  was  principle,  and  not  per 
sonal  attraction,  that  moved  him.  In  some 
sense,  it  may  be  said  that  he  denied  himself; 
and  loved  those  who  were  beneath  him.  Nay, 
I  think  he  thought  more  of  mankind  than  he 
did  of  men.  I  think  he  loved  the  principles 
of  justice  and  of  liberty,  rather  than  liberty 
and  justice  themselves.  It  was  because  liberty 
204 


Charles  Sumner 

in  practical  life  glorified  the  principle  of  lib 
erty  that  he  loved  it. 

He  is  an  example  of  personal  integrity — an 
example  not  a  little  needed.  Much  assaulted, 
much  misunderstood,  partly  from  his  own 
fault,  and  partly  from  circumstances,  neverthe 
less  he  was  prosperous,  and  had  an  illustrious 
career,  never  drooping,  and  never  blackened 
by  any  taint.  He  has  died  in  honour ;  and 
his  name  remains  a  glorious  name  in  the 
galaxy  of  American  patriots. 

Sumner  was  a  man  of  courage,  of  fidelity 
to  convictions.  He  never  meanly  calculated. 
He  never  asked  the  question  whether  it  was 
dangerous  to  speak.  He  was  one  of  those 
heroic  spirits  that  carried  the  fight  further  than 
it  needed  to  be  carried.  He  erred  by  an  ex 
cess  of  bravery.  He  was  a  self-sacrificing  man, 
giving  up  every  prospect  of  life  for  the  sake  of 
doing  his  duty  and  establishing  rectitude.  He 
lost  his  life,  and  found  it.  He  has  verified  the 
truth  that  disinterestedness  is  not  inconsistent 
with  the  highest  ambition.  We  have  not  a 
great  many  such  men.  There  is  not  a  disposi 
tion,  in  this  vast,  trading,  thriving,  commer 
cial  nation,  and  in  this  time  of  greed,  to  be 
lieve  in  romantic  heroism  of  character ;  and  it 
is  good  for  us  to  be  called  to  the  consideration 
205 


Lectures  and  Orations 

of  a  man  who  did  not  live  for  himself,  and 
whose  nature,  revolving  about  itself,  was 
trained  by  the  principle  of  justice  to  develop  it 
self  for  the  welfare  of  others.  I  cannot  con 
ceive  of  a  man  who  by  nature  befitted  the 
courtly  circle  better  than  he.  If  I  had  looked 
through  all  the  old  State  of  Massachusetts,  I 
could  not  have  found,  it  seems  to  me,  one  man 
who  would  have  been  more  likely  to  ally  him 
self  to  government,  to  party  and  to  illustrious 
power  than  Charles  Sumner ;  and  it  was  a 
marvel  of  the  providence  of  God  to  see  this 
man,  who  was  built  apparently  to  play  the  part 
of  a  sovereign  and  an  aristocrat,  filling  the 
office  of  nurse  to  the  slave  child ;  giving  his 
brilliant  knowledge,  his  unwearied  industry, 
and  the  fruit  which  he  had  gathered  from 
every  field,  to  those  who  needed  succour ;  and 
bringing  the  stores  of  his  literary  attainments, 
the  richness  of  his  historical  researches,  and 
the  accumulated  treasures  of  the  ages,  which 
were  his,  and  employing  them  to  build  better 
huts  for  the  emancipated  bondmen. 

If  he  does  not  rank  with  the  earlier  men  of 
our  history ;  if  he  does  not  rank  with  the  in 
ventive  geniuses  of  the  age  to  which  he  be 
longed  ;  yet  no  man  in  America  has  ever 
surpassed  Charles  Sumner  in  the  entire  dedica- 
206 


Charles  Sumner 

tion  of  the  gifts  which  God  granted  him  to  the 
service  of  the  poor  and  needy.  Thousands 
and  thousands  are  blessed  by  him  who  have 
only  heard  his  name  to  rail  at  it ;  for  while  he 
secured  rights  to  the  poor,  and  while  he  re 
moved  disabilities  from  those  who  were  en 
thralled,  not  only  the  particular  class  for  whom 
he  specially  laboured  were  benefited,  but 
every  honest  man  in  the  country,  whatever 
might  be  his  nationality,  participated  in  the 
bounty  which  he  wrought  out. 

He  has  gone  to  his  reward.  He  has  lived  a 
noble  and  spotless  life  on  earth.  He  has  not 
been  a  hero  without  a  blemish  ;  and  yet  his 
blemishes  were  not  spots  of  taint.  His  faults 
were  weaknesses,  not  crimes  of  the  soul. 
They  were  intensities,  partaking  somewhat  of 
fierceness,  engendered  by  the  high  conflicts 
through  which  he  passed.  And  let  us  forget 
them.  Let  us  bury  them,  as  we  bury  the  noble 
form,  dust  to  dust,  under  the  sod.  Let  us  re 
member  his  virtue,  his  integrity,  his  self-devo 
tion,  his  enormous  industry,  his  patient  hu 
manity,  and  his  endurance  unto  the  end  as  a 
martyr  for  liberty. 


207 


VII 
WENDELL  PHILLIPS1 

IT  was  on  last  Wednesday  that,  standing 
upon  the  steps  of  the  Parker  House,  Bos 
ton,  in  School  Street,  my  attention  was  ar 
rested  by  a  procession.  As  they  came  up,  I 
saw  a  soldierly  body  of  coloured  men  with 
muskets  reversed,  the  silent  band  following, 
with  officers'  corps  behind  it,  their  swords  re 
versed,  and  then  the  carriages,  following  the 
hearse  that  bore — dust  to  dust — all  that  re 
mained  on  earth  of  Wendell  Phillips.  The 
streets  could  not  hold  the  crowd,  and  he 
whom  the  mob  had  sought  once  and  again  to 
tear  to  pieces  now  drew  tears  on  every  side 
from  the  mob,  and  the  obsequious  city  sought 
to  make  up  its  vulgar  scorn  of  other  days  by 
its  worshipful  attention. 

It  is  respecting  this  man  and  his  times  that 
I  shall,  very  briefly  and  imperfectly,  speak 
this  morning. 

1  Discourse  in  Plymouth  Church,  Sunday  morning,  Feb 
ruary  10,  1884. 

208 


Wendell  Phillips 

Fifty  years  ago,  during  my  college  life  in 
Amherst,  I  was  chosen  by  the  Athenian  So 
ciety  to  debate  the  question  of  African  Coloni 
zation,  which  then  was  new,  fresh  and  enthu 
siastic.  Garrison  was  then  just  kindling  into 
that  firebrand  that  never  went  out  until 
slavery  was  consumed.  Wendell  Phillips,  a 
young  lawyer,  had  just  begun  his  career. 
Fortunately,  I  was  assigned  to  the  negative 
side  of  the  question,  and  in  preparing  to  speak 
I  prepared  my  whole  life.  I  contended  against 
colonization  as  a  condition  of  emancipation, — 
enforced  colonization  was  but  little  better  than 
enforced  slavery, — and  advocated  immediate 
emancipation  on  the  broad  ground  of  human 
rights.  I  knew  but  very  little  then,  but  I 
knew  this,  that  all  men  are  designed  of  God  to 
be  free,  a  fact  which  ought  to  be  the  text  of 
every  man's  life — this  sacredness  of  humanity 
as  given  of  God,  redeemed  from  animalism  by 
Jesus  Christ,  crowned  and  clothed  with  rights 
that  no  law  nor  oppression  should  dare  touch. 

Nearly  two  generations  have  passed  since 
then  ;  the  young  men  who  are  marching  now 
from  youth  to  manhood  are  little  acquainted 
with  the  men  or  movements  of  those  days,  but 
a  few  gray  heads  are  left  that  can  recall  all 
these  scenes.  It  has  been  said  that  men  are 
209 


Lectures  and  Orations 

more  ignorant  of  that  part  of  history  which 
immediately  precedes  their  own  lives,  than  of 
any  other.  Let  us,  therefore,  throw  some 
little  light  upon  the  history  of  those  days  that 
immediately  precede  our  own. 

At  the  beginning,  in  the  history  of  this 
people,  Slavery  was  the  accident :  it  was  intro 
duced  at  a  time  before  the  world's  eyes  had 
been  opened  ;  it  came  in,  indeed,  under  the 
cover  of  benevolence ;  it  had  not  attained  a 
very  great  estate  for  many  years  ;  and  yet,  in 
the  days  of  its  infancy,  it  so  conflicted  with 
the  fundamental  ideas  on  which  our  institu 
tions  and  laws  were  based,  that  the  Northern 
States  got  rid  of  it.  Because  the  climate  and 
husbandry  were  not  favourable  to  it  in  the 
Northern  States,  they  were  helped  to  do  it ; 
but  the  spirit  of  liberty  had  taken  on  the  moral 
element  in  New  England,  in  New  York,  and 
in  Pennsylvania ;  and  slavery  was  soon  extin 
guished.  In  the  South  it  became  a  very  im 
portant  industrial  element.  Rice,  sugar,  cot 
ton  were  the  trinity  that  dominated  the  indus.- 
try  of  the  South,  and  slave  labour  was  favourable 
to  this  simple  industry.  It  became,  therefore, 
a  pecuniary  interest  to  the  South,  as  it  never 
was  in  the  North.  After  a  time  the  industry 
became  so  important  that,  although  through- 
210 


Wendell  Phillips 

out  all  the  South  in  the  earlier  days,  men 
recognized  slavery  as  a  sin,  and  its  existence 
as  a  great  misfortune,  and  always  hoped  that 
the  day  would  speedily  come  for  emancipa 
tion  ;  yet  all  those  hopes  and  expectations 
were  met  and  resisted  and  overthrown  by  the 
fact  that  slavery  became  a  political  interest. 
It  became  the  centre  which  united  every 
Southern  State  with  every  other,  and  gave 
unity  to  the  party  of  the  South ;  so  that  po 
litical  reasons,  rooted  in  pecuniary  reasons, 
gave  great  strength  to  slavery  and  its  propa- 
gandism  in  the  South.  The  North  emanci 
pated  ;  the  South  fortified. 

It  has  been  said  a  thousand  times,  and  every 
time  falsely  (it  was  said  by  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  sons  of  the  South  a  few  months  ago 
in  Cooper  Union,  where  I  presided,  but  it  was 
not  the  time  nor  a  fitting  place  to  expose  the 
misstatement),  it  has  been  said  that  the  North 
sold  out,  and  having  realized  on  their  slaves 
invested  in  liberty  as  a  better  paying  stock. 

This  statement  is  absolutely  untrue.  It  has 
no  historical  verity  in  Massachusetts.  There, 
to  some  slight  extent,  slavery  existed  as  it  did 
not  in  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  and  Maine, 
but  died  by  a  very  simple  legal  decision,  one 
case  having  been  brought  into  the  courts,  and 

211 


Lectures  and  Orations 

the  courts  determining  that  it  was  inconsistent 
with  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
the  Constitution  sequent ;  and  the  man  stood 
free.  After  that  there  was  no  enactment; 
nothing.  Slavery  perished  of  itself  by  that 
one  single  decision. 

In  New  York  a  bill  was  passed  early  for  the 
gradual  emancipation  of  slaves,  and  it  was 
guarded  in  every  way.  On  attaining  a  certain 
age  slaves  were  to  become  free ;  up  to  that 
age  they  were  the  property  of  their  masters, 
upon  whom  the  responsibility  of  their  support 
still  rested  with  full  weight.  After  a  trial  of 
some  years  it  was  considered  a  great  deal  bet 
ter  to  be  rid  of  the  evil  at  once,  and  subse 
quent  legislation  determined  immediate  eman 
cipation.  Now,  as  against  those  that  falsely 
accused  the  integrity  and  love  of  liberty  of 
this  great  State,  let  me  say  that  if  you  will  go 
back  to  the  laws,  and  to  the  practice  under 
them,  you  shall  find  that  with  the  declaration 
of  emancipation,  both  the  primitive  form  of  it 
and  the  subsequent  form  of  it,  the  right  of  the 
slave  or  of  the  coming  freedman  was  guaran 
teed,  and  his  safety. 

No  man  was  permitted  to  take  a  slave  out 
of  the  State  of  New  York  without  giving  bond 
for  his  return,  and  if  he  came  back  without 
212 


Wendell  Phillips 

his  slave,  unless  he  could  prove  that  the  slave 
had  died,  he  was  himself  made  a  criminal,  and 
subjected  to  criminal  punishment ;  and  there 
is  reason  to  believe,  in  regard  to  the  most  of 
the  comparatively  few  slaves  that  were  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  that  their  emancipation 
was  a  bona  fide  emancipation,  and  they  never 
were  sold  South. 

Now  and  then  a  man  can  steal  a  horse ;  but 
we  should  not  lay  to  the  State  from  which  it 
was  taken  the  charge  of  abetting  theft.  There 
may  have  been  single  men  or  women  spirited 
away  ;  there  may  have  been  thieving;  I  know 
of  none,  I  have  heard  of  none,  though  there 
may  have  been ;  but  whatever  the  statute 
could  do  to  maintain  the  slave  in  his  integrity 
and  liberty  was  done,  and  substantially  and 
generally  it  was  effectual ;  and  all  this  cheap 
wash  of  wild  declamation  that  we  hear  going 
through  the  land,  to  the  effect  that  the  North 
sold  out  its  slaves  and  then  went  into  the 
business  of  emancipation,  is  simply  false. 

The  condition  of  the  public  mind  through 
out  the  North  at  the  time  that  I  came  to  the 
consciousness  of  public  affairs,  and  was  study 
ing  my  profession,  may  be  described  as  the 
condition  of  imprisoned  moral  sense.  All  men, 
almost,  agreed  together  in  saying  that  "  Sla- 
213 


Lectures  and  Orations 

very  is  wrong  ;  but  what  can  we  do  ?  "  The 
compromise  of  our  fathers  included  us  ;  and 
fidelity  to  the  agreements  that  had  been  made 
in  the  formation  of  our  Constitution,  of  our 
Confederation  first,  and  of  our  Constitution 
afterwards,  was  regarded  everywhere  as  a 
moral  obligation  by  men  that  hated  slavery. 
"  The  compromises  of  the  Constitution  must 
be  respected,"  said  the  priest  in  the  pulpit, 
said  the  politician  in  the  field,  said  the  states 
man  in  public  hall ;  and  men  abroad,  in  Eng 
land  especially,  could  not  understand  what 
was  the  reason  of  the  later  hesitancy  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  and  of  the  people,  when  they 
had  risen  to  arms,  in  declaring  at  once  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves.  There  never  has 
been  in  history  an  instance  more  notable  in 
which,  I  think,  the  feelings  and  the  moral  sense 
of  so  large  a  number  of  people  have  been  held 
in  check  for  reasons  of  fidelity  to  obligations 
assumed  in  their  behalf;  and  I  am  bound  to 
say  that  with  all  its  faults  and  weaknesses  there 
has  never  been  an  instance  more  noble.  That 
being  the  underlying  moral  element,  the  com 
mercial  question  in  the  North  very  soon  be 
came,  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  what  the  in 
dustrial  and  political  questions  of  the  South 
had  made  it.  It  corrupted  the  manufacturer 
214 


Wendell  Phillips 

and  the  merchant.  Throughout  the  whole 
North  every  man  that  could  make  anything 
by  it  regarded  the  South  as  his  legal,  lawful 
market ;  for  the  South  did  not  manufacture. 
They  had  the  cheap  and  vulgar  husbandry  of 
slavery.  They  could  make  more  money  with 
cotton  than  with  corn  or  beef,  or  pork,  or 
leather,  or  hats,  or  woodenvvare.  Our  North 
ern  ships  went  South  to  get  their  forest  tim 
bers,  and  brought  them  to  Connecticut  to  be 
made  into  woodenware,  and  axe  helves,  and 
rake  handles,  and  carried  them  right  back  to 
sell  to  the  men  whose  axes  had  cut  down  the 
trees. 

The  South  manufactured  nothing  except 
slaves  ;  it  was  a  great  manufacture,  that ;  and 
the  whole  market  of  the  North  was  bribed. 
The  harness-makers,  the  wagon-makers,  the 
clock- makers,  makers  of  all  manner  of  imple 
ments  and  goods,  were  subject  to  this  bribery. 
Every  manufactory,  every  loom  as  it  clanked 
in  the  North,  said :  "  Maintain  not  slavery, 
but  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution,"  for 
that  was  the  veil  under  which  all  these  cries 
were  continually  uttered. 

The  distinction  between  the  Anti-slavery 
men  and  Abolitionists  was  simply  this  :  the 
Abolitionist  disclaimed  the  obligation  to  main- 
215 


Lectures  and  Orations 

tain  this  Government  and  the  promise  of  the 
Constitution ;  the  Anti-slavery  man  recog 
nized  the  binding  obligation  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  sought  the  emancipation  of  slaves  by 
a  more  circuitous  and  gradual  influence  :  but 
Abolitionism  covered  both  terms.  It  was  re 
garded,  however,  throughout  the  North  as  a 
greater  sin  than  Slavery  itself;  and  none  of 
you  that  are  under  thirty  years  of  age  can 
form  an  adequate  conception  of  the  public 
sentiment  and  feeling  during  the  days  of  my 
young  manhood.  A  man  that  was  known  to 
be  an  Abolitionist  had  better  be  known  to 
have  the  plague.  Every  door  was  shut  to 
him.  If  he  was  born  under  circumstances 
that  admitted  him  to  the  best  society,  he  was 
the  black  sheep  of  the  family.  If  he  aspired, 
by  fidelity,  industry  and  genius,  to  good  so 
ciety,  he  was  debarred.  "An  Abolitionist" 
was  enough  to  put  the  mark  of  Cain  upon  any 
young  man  that  arose  in  my  early  day,  and 
until  I  was  forty  years  of  age,  it  was  punish-, 
able  to  preach  on  the  subject  of  liberty.  It 
was  enough  to  expel  a  man  from  church  com 
munion  if  he  insisted  on  praying  in  the  prayer- 
meeting  for  the  liberation  of  the  slaves.  I  am 
speaking  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness. 
The  Church  was  dumb  in  the  North,  but  not 
216 


Wendell  Phillips 

in  the  West.  A  marked  distinction  exists  be 
tween  the  history  of  the  new  school  of  Pres 
byterian  churches  in  the  West  and  the  Con 
gregational  churches,  the  Episcopal  churches, 
the  Methodist  and  Baptist  churches  in  the 
North  and  East.  The  great  publishing  so 
cieties  that  were  sustained  by  the  contributions 
of  the  churches  were  absolutely  dumb.  Great 
controversies  raged  round  about  the  doors  of 
the  Bible  Society,  of  the  Tract  Society  and  of 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions.  The  managers  of  these 
societies  resorted  to  every  shift  except  that  of 
sending  the  Gospel  to  the  slaves.  They  would 
not  send  the  Bible  to  the  South  ;  for,  they 
said,  "  It  is  a  punishable  offense  in  most  of 
the  Southern  States  to  teach  a  slave  to  read  ; 
and  are  we  to  go  in  the  face  of  this  State 
legislation  and  send  the  Bible  South  ?  "  The 
Tract  Society  said  :  "  We  are  set  up  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  not  to  meddle  with  political  and 
industrial  institutions."  And  so  they  went  on 
printing  tracts  against  tobacco  and  its  uses, 
tracts  against  dancing  and  its  abuses,  and  re 
fusing  to  print  a  tract  that  had  a  shadow  of 
criticism  on  slavery  ! 

One    of  the   most   disgraceful  things  took 
place  in  New  Jersey.     I  have  the  book.     It 
217 


Lectures  and  Orations 

was  an  edition  of  the  Episcopal  prayer-book. 
They  had  put  into  the  front  of  it  a  steel  en 
graving  of  Ary  Scheffer's  «•  Christus  Consola- 
tor," — Christ  the  Consoler.  There  was  a  semi 
circle  around  about  the  beneficent  and  aerial 
figure  of  our  Saviour, — the  poor,  the  old,  the 
sick,  the  mother  with  her  dead  babe,  bowed 
in  grief;  every  known  form  of  human  sorrow 
belonged  to  the  original  design  and  picture ; 
and  among  others  a  fettered  slave,  with  his 
hands  lifted  to  heaven  praying  for  liberty : 
but  this  was  too  much ;  and  so  they  cut  out 
the  slave,  and  left  the  rest  of  the  picture,  and 
bound  it  into  the  Episcopal  prayer-book  of 
New  Jersey.  I  have  a  copy  of  it,  which  I 
mean  to  leave  to  the  Historical  Society  of 
Brooklyn  when  I  am  done  using  it. 

These  things  are  important  as  showing  the 
incredible  condition  of  public  sentiment  at 
that  time.  If  a  man  came  known  to  be  an 
Anti-slavery  man  it  almost  preluded  bank 
ruptcy  in  business. 

You  remember,  some  of  you,  the  black  list 
that  was  framed  and  sent  all  over  the  South, 
of  men  that  were  suspected  of  being  Aboli 
tionists  in  New  York  City.  The  South  under 
took  to  boycott  the  whole  North.  Then  it 
was  that  I  drew  up  the  sentence  for  a  then 
218 


Wendell  Phillips 

member  of  this  church, "  I  have  goods  for  sale, 
but  not  principles."  Resistance  was  a  blight 
to  all  political  hope.  No  man  could  have  the 
slightest  expectation  of  rising  in  politics  that 
did  not  bow  the  knee  to  Baal.  A  derisive  laugh 
was  the  only  answer  with  which  exhortations  to 
nobility  and  manhood  were  received.  This 
public  sentiment  was  worse  in  the  North  than 
it  was  anywhere  else,  and  in  the  Northeast 
worse  than  in  the  West,  on  account  of  the 
extent  of  manufacturing  and  commerce  here. 

When  I  came  to  Brooklyn  I  was  exhorted 
not  to  meddle  with  so  unpopular  a  subject. 
"  What  is  the  use  ? "  was  said  to  me  by  a 
venerable  master  in  Israel ;  "  why  should  you 
lose  your  influence  ?  Why  don't  you  go  on 
and  preach  the  Gospel  ?  "  to  which  I  replied, 
11  I  don't  know  any  gospel  of  that  kind.  My 
gospel  has  in  it  the  breaking  of  prison  bars 
and  shackles,  the  bringing  forth  of  prisoners, 
and  if  I  can't  preach  that  I  won't  preach  at 
all."  The  very  first  sermon  that  I  ever 
preached  before  this  congregation — or  rather, 
the  congregation  that  met  me — was  the  dec 
laration  of  my  principles  on  temperance,  on 
peace  and  war,  and  above  all,  on  the  subject 
of  slavery.  For  years  and  years  just  prior  to 
the  renting  of  the  pews,  I  came  out  like  thun- 
219 


Lectures  and  Orations 

der  on  the  subject  of  slavery ;  for  I  told  my 
people  that  they  need  not  think  that  they 
could  dine  me  out  of  my  principles,  nor 
smooth  me  out  of  them,  nor  in  any  way  make 
the  pews  an  argument  to  me  of  prudence  in 
the  matter  of  principle. 

The  church  rose  steadily,  despite  the  anti- 
slaveryism  of  the  pastor.  Yet,  if  a  coloured 
man  at  that  time  had  come  into  the  church  he 
would  have  been  an  object  of  observation,  and 
the  cause  of  some  grumbling,  though  not  of 
revolt  in  this  church,  thank  God.  There  never 
has  been  a  day  since  I  became  the  pastor  of 
Plymouth  Church  that  a  cleanly-dressed  re 
spectable  coloured  man  or  woman  could  not 
have  come  in  and  taken  a  seat  here.  It  would 
have  excited  among  a  great  many  a  good  deal 
of  trouble  ;  but  this  congregation  has  been  of 
that  mind,  and  never  the  result  of  my  under 
taking  to  enforce  it.  I  never  preached  on  that 
subject.  I  never  said  to  the  people  in  this 
congregation,  from  the  beginning  to  this  day, 
"  You  ought  to  let  coloured  folks  sit  in  your 
pew."  I  preached  the  dignity  of  man  as  a 
child  of  God ;  and  lifted  up  the  sanctity  of 
human  life  and  nature  before  the  people. 
They  made  the  application,  and  they  made  it 
wisely  and  well. 

220 


Wendell  Phillips 

When  I  came  here  there  was  no  place  for 
coloured  men  and  women  in  the  theatre  ex 
cept  the  negro  pen ;  no  place  in  the  opera ; 
no  place  in  the  church  except  the  negro  pew  ; 
no  place  in  any  lecture  hall ;  no  place  in  the 
first-class  car  on  the  railways.  The  white 
omnibus  of  Fulton  Ferry  would  not  allow 
coloured  persons  to  ride  in  it.  They  were 
never  allowed  to  sit  even  in  the  men's  cabin 
on  the  boats. 

I  invited  Fred.  Douglass,  one  day,  in  those 
times,  to  come  to  church  here.  "  I  should  be 
glad  to,  sir,"  said  he ;  "  but  it  would  be  so  of 
fensive  to  your  congregation."  "  Mr.  Doug 
lass,  will  you  come  ?  and  if  any  man  objects 
to  it,  come  up  and  sit  on  my  platform  by  me. 
You  will  always  be  welcome  there." 

I  mention  these  things  simply  to  show  what 
was  the  state  of  feeling  that  existed  every 
where  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago.  Ex 
isted  !  Swept  through  the  land  as  a  sultry 
sirocco  sweeps  through  the  desert,  scorching 
and  blasting  public  sentiment ! 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  Egyptian 
era  in  America  that  the  young  aristocrat  of 
Boston  appeared.  His  blood  came  through 
the  best  colonial  families.  He  was  an  aristo 
crat  by  descent  and  by  nature — a  noble  one, 
221 


Lectures  and  Orations 

but  a  thorough  aristocrat.  All  his  life  and 
power  assumed  that  guise.  He  was  noble,  he 
was  full  of  kindness  to  inferiors,  he  was  willing 
to  be  and  do  and  suffer  for  them ;  but  he  was 
never  of  them,  nor  did  he  ever  equal  himself 
to  them.  He  was  always  above  them ;  and 
his  gifts  of  love  were  always  the  gifts  of  a 
prince  to  his  subjects.  All  his  life  long  he 
resented  every  attack  on  his  person  and  on 
his  honour  as  a  noble  aristocrat  would.  When 
they  poured  the  filth  of  their  imaginations 
upon  him,  he  cared  no  more  for  it  than  the 
eagle  cares  what  the  fly  is  thinking  about  him 
away  down  under  the  cloud.  All  the  miser 
able  traffickers,  all  the  scribblers  and  all  the 
aristocratic  boobies  of  Boston  were  no  more 
to  him  than  mosquitoes  are  to  the  behemoth 
or  to  the  lion.  He  was  aristocratic  in  his 
pride,  and  lived  higher  than  most  men  lived. 
He  was  called  of  God  as  truly  as  ever  Moses 
and  the  Prophets  were  :  not  exactly  for  the 
same  great  ends,  but  in  consonance  with  those 
great  ends. 

The  elder  ones  remember  when  Lovejoy 
was  infamously  slaughtered  by  a  mob  in 
Alton,  and  blood  was  shed  that  has  been  the 
seed  of  liberty  all  over  this  land.  I  remember 
it.  At  this  time,  it  was,  that  Channing  lifted 

222 


Wendell  Phillips 

up  his  voice,  and  declared  that  the  moral  sen 
timent  of  Boston  ought  to  be  uttered  in  rebuke 
of  that  infamy  and  cruelty,  and  asked  for 
Faneuil  Hall  in  which  to  call  a  public  meet 
ing.  This  was  indignantly  refused  by  the 
Common  Council  of  Boston.  Being  a  man 
of  wide  influence,  he  gathered  around  about 
himself  enough  venerable  and  influential  old 
citizens  of  that  city  to  make  a  denial  of  their 
united  request  a  perilous  thing ;  and  Faneuil 
Hall  was  granted  to  call  a  public  meeting  to 
express  itself  on  this  subject  of  the  murder  of 
Lovejoy.  The  meeting  was  made  up  largely 
of  rowdies.  They  meant  to  overawe  and  put 
down  all  other  expressions  of  opinion  except 
those  that  then  rioted  with  the  riotous.  United 
States  District  Attorney  Austin  (when  Wen 
dell  Phillips'  name  is  written  in  letters  of  light 
on  one  side  of  the  monument,  down  low  on 
the  other  side,  and  spattered  with  dirt,  let  the 
name  of  Austin  also  be  written)  made  a  trucu 
lent  speech,  and  justified  the  mob,  and  ran  the 
whole  career  of  the  sewer  of  those  days,  and 
justified  non-interference  with  slavery.  Wen 
dell  Phillips,  just  come  to  town  as  a  young 
lawyer  without  at  present  any  practice,  al 
most  unknown  except  to  his  own  family,  fired 
with  the  infamy,  and  feeling  called  of  God  in 
223 


Lectures  and  Orations 

his  soul,  went  upon  the  platform.  His  first 
utterances  brought  down  the  hisses  of  the 
mob.  He  was  not  a  man  very  easily  subdued 
by  any  mob.  They  listened  as  he  kindled  and 
poured  on  that  man  Austin  the  fire  and  lava 
of  a  volcano  ;  and  he  finally  turned  the  course 
of  the  feeling  of  the  meeting.  Practically  un 
known  when  the  sun  went  down  one  day, 
when  it  rose  the  next  morning  all  Boston  was 
saying,  "  Who  is  this  fellow  ?  who  is  this 
Phillips  ?  " — a  question  that  has  never  been 
asked  since ! 

Thenceforth  he  was  a  flaming  advocate  of 
liberty,  with  singular  advantages  over  all  other 
pleaders.  Mr.  Garrison  was  not  noted  as  a 
speaker  ;  his  tongue  was  his  pen.  Mr.  Phillips 
was  not  much  given  to  the  pen,  his  pen  was 
his  tongue,  and  no  other  like  speaker  has  ever 
graced  our  history.  I  do  not  undertake  to  say 
that  he  surpassed  all  others.  He  had  an  in 
tense  individuality,  and  that  intense  individual 
ity  ranked  him  among  the  noblest  orators  that 
have  ever  been  born  to  this  continent,  or  I 
may  say  to  our  mother  land.  He  adopted  in 
full  the  tenets  of  Garrison,  which  were  ex 
cessively  disagreeable  to  the  whole  public 
mind.  The  ground  which  he  took  was  that 
which  Garrison  took.  Seeing  that  the  con- 
224 


Wendell  Phillips 

science  of  the  North  was  smothered  and  mute 
by  reason  of  supposed  obligations  to  the  com 
promises  of  the  Constitution,  Garrison  declared 
that  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution  were 
covenants  with  hell,  and  that  no  man  was 
bound  to  observe  them.  This  extreme  ground 
Mr.  Phillips  also  took — immediate,  uncondi 
tional,  universal  emancipation  at  any  cost 
whatsoever.  That  was  Garrisonism  ;  that  was 
Wendell  Phillipsism  ;  and  it  would  seem  as 
though  the  Lord  rather  leaned  that  way  too. 

I  shall  not  discuss  the  merits  of  Mr.  Garri 
son  nor  of  Mr.  Phillips  in  every  direction.  I 
shall  say  that  while  the  duty  of  immediate 
emancipation  without  conditions  was  unques 
tionably  the  right  ground,  yet  in  the  provi 
dence  of  God  even  that  could  not  be  brought 
to  pass  except  through  the  mediation  of  very 
many  events.  It  is  a  remarkable  thing  that 
Mr.  Phillips  and  Mr.  Garrison  both  renounced 
the  Union  and  denounced  the  Union  in  the 
hope  of  destroying  slavery  ;  whereas  the  prov 
idence  of  God  protected  the  love  of  the  Union 
when  it  was  assailed  by  the  South,  and  made 
the  love  of  the  Union  the  enthusiasm  that  car 
ried  through  the  great  war  of  Emancipation. 
It  was  the  very  antithesis  of  the  ground  which 
they  took.  Like  John  Brown,  Mr.  Garrison  ; 
225 


Lectures  and  Orations 

like  John  Brown,  Mr.  Phillips  ;  of  a  heroic 
spirit,  seeking  the  great  end  nobly,  but  by 
measures  not  well  adapted  to  directly  secure 
the  end. 

Little  by  little  the  controversy  spread.  I 
shall  not  trace  it.  I  am  giving  you  simply  the 
atmosphere  in  which  Mr.  Phillips  sprang  into 
being  and  into  power.  His  career  was  a  career 
of  thirty  or  forty  years  of  undiminished  eager 
ness.  He  never  quailed  nor  flinched,  nor  did 
he  ever  at  any  time  go  back  one  step,  or  turn 
in  the  slightest  degree  to  the  right  or  left.  He 
gloried  in  his  cause,  and  in  that  particular  as 
pect  of  it  which  had  selected  him. 

He  stood  on  this  platform.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  sweet  and  pleasant  memories  of  my  com 
parative  youth  here,  that  when  the  mob  re 
fused  to  let  him  speak  in  the  Broadway  Taber 
nacle  before  it  was  moved  up-town — the  old 
Tabernacle — William  A.  Hall,  now  dead,  a 
fervent  friend  and  Abolitionist,  had  secured  the 
Graham  Institute,  on  Washington  Street,  in 
Brooklyn,  wherein  to  hold  a  meeting  where 
Mr.  Phillips  should  be  heard.  I  had  agreed 
to  pray  at  the  opening  of  the  meeting.  On 
the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  it  was  to 
have  taken  place,  I  was  visited  by  the  com 
mittee  of  that  Institute  (excellent  gentlemen, 
226 


Wendell  Phillips 

whose  feelings  will  not  be  hurt,  because  they 
.are  all  now  ashamed  of  it ;  they  are  in  heaven), 
who  said  that  in  consequence  of  the  great  peril 
that  attended  a  meeting  at  the  Institute,  they 
had  withdrawn  the  liberty  to  use  it,  and  paid 
back  the  money,  and  that  they  called  simply 
to  say  that  it  was  out  of  no  disrespect  to  me, 
but  from  fidelity  to  their  supposed  trust. 
Well,  it  was  a  bitter  thing.  If  there  is  any 
thing  on  earth  that  I  am  sensitive  to,  it  is  the 
withdrawing  of  the  liberty  of  speech  and 
thought.  Henry  C.  Bowen,  who  certainly  has 
done  some  good  things  in  his  lifetime,  said  to 
me,  "  You  can  have  Plymouth  Church  if  you 
want  it."  "  How  ?  "  "  It  is  the  rule  of  the 
church  trustees  that  the  church  may  be  let  by 
a  majority  vote  when  we  are  convened  ;  but  if 
we  are  not  convened,  then  every  trustee  must 
give  his  assent  in  writing.  If  you  choose  to 
make  it  a  personal  matter,  and  go  to  every  trus 
tee,  you  can  have  it."  He  meanwhile  under 
took,  with  Mr.  Hall,  to  put  new  placards  over 
the  old  ones,  notifying  men,  quietly,  that  the 
meeting  was  to  be  held  here,  and  distributed 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  handbills 
at  the  ferries.  No  task  was  ever  more  wel 
come.  I  went  to  the  trustees  man  by  man. 
The  majority  of  them  very  cheerfully  accorded 
227 


Lectures  and  Orations 

the  permission.  One  or  two  of  them  were 
disposed  to  decline  and  withhold  it.  I  made 
it  a  matter  of  personal  friendship.  "  You  and 
I  will  break  if  you  don't  give  me  this  permis 
sion  ; "  and  they  signed.  So  the  meeting 
glided  from  the  Graham  Institute  to  this  house. 
A  great  audience  assembled.  We  had  detect 
ives  in  disguise,  and  every  arrangement  made 
to  handle  the  subject  in  a  practical  form  if  the 
crowd  should  undertake  to  molest  us.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  consented  to  come  and 
pray  ;  for  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  was  by  mar 
riage  a  near  and  intimate  friend  and  relation 
of  his.  The  reporters  were  here — when  were 
they  ever  not  ?  A  gentleman  was  called  to 
preside  over  the  meeting  who  had  been  known 
to  be  an  Abolitionist  almost  from  his  cradle ; 
but  he  was  personally  a  timid  man,  though 
morally  courageous.  When  I  put  the  sense  of 
the  meeting  that  he  should  preside,  he  got  up 
and  was  so  scared  that  he  could  not  be  heard. 
He  muttered  that  he  thought  some  other  man 
might  have  been  chosen.  I  called  him  by 
name  and  said,  "  You  are  selected  to  preside, 
sir."  He  got  up  again — "  Will  you  be  kind 
enough  to  come  up  here  and  preside,  sir?  " 
And  for  fear  that  he  would  be  worse  bom 
barded  by  not  doing  it  than  he  would  by  doing 
228 


Wendell  Phillips 

it,  he  came  up.  Prayer  was  uttered.  An  ex 
planatory  statement  was  made.  Mr.  Phillips 
began  his  lecture  ;  and  you  may  depend  upon 
it  by  this  time  the  lion  was  in  him,  and  he 
went  careering  on.  His  views  were  extreme, 
he  made  them  extravagant.  I  remember  at 
one  point, — for  he  was  a  man  without  bluster ; 
serene,  self-poised,  never  disturbed  in  the  least, 
— he  made  an  affirmation  that  was  very  bitter, 
and  a  cry  arose  over  the  whole  congregation. 
He  stood  still,  with  a  cold,  bitter  smile  on  his 
face  and  look  in  his  eye,  and  waited  till  they 
subsided,  when  he  repeated  it  with  more  em 
phasis.  Again  the  roar  went  through.  He 
waited,  and  repeated  it  if  possible  more  in 
tensely  ;  and  he  beat  them  down  with  that 
one  sentence,  until  they  were  still  and  let  him 
go  on. 

The  power  to  discern  right  amid  all  the 
wrappings  of  interest  and  all  the  seductions  of 
ambition  was  singularly  his.  To  choose  the 
lowly  for  their  sake ;  to  abandon  all  favour, 
all  power,  all  comfort,  all  ambition,  all  great 
ness — that  was  his  genius  and  glory.  He  con 
fronted  the  spirit  of  the  Nation  and  of  the  age. 
I  had  almost  said,  he  set  himself  against  na 
ture,  as  if  he  had  been  a  decree  of  God  over 
riding  all  these  other  insuperable  obstacles. 
229 


Lectures  and  Orations 

That  was  his  function.  Mr.  Phillips  was  not 
called  to  be  a  universal  orator  any  more  than 
he  was  a  universal  thinker.  In  literature  and 
in  history  he  was  widely  read ;  in  person  most 
elegant ;  in  manners  most  accomplished  ; 
gentle  as  a  babe  ;  sweet  as  a  new-blown  rose  ; 
in  voice,  clear  and  silvery.  He  was  not  a  man 
of  tempests ;  he  was  not  an  orchestra  of  a 
hundred  instruments;  he  was  not  an  organ, 
mighty  and  complex.  The  Nation  slept,  and 
God  wanted  a  trumpet,  sharp,  far-sounding, 
narrow  and  intense  ;  and  that  was  Mr.  Phillips. 
The  long  roll  is  not  particularly  agreeable  in 
music  or  in  times  of  peace,  but  it  is  better 
than  flutes  or  harps  when  men  are  in  a  great 
battle,  or  are  on  the  point  of  it.  His  elo 
quence  was  penetrating  and  alarming.  He 
did  not  flow  as  a  mighty  Gulf  Stream  ;  he  did 
not  dash  upon  the  continent  as  the  ocean  does  ; 
he  was  not  a  mighty  rushing  river.  His  elo 
quence  was  a  flight  of  arrows ;  sentence  after 
sentence,  polished,  and  most  of  them  burning. 
He  shot  them  one  after  the  other,  and  where 
they  struck  they  slew  ;  always  elegant,  always 
awful.  I  think  scorn  in  him  was  as  fine  as  I 
ever  knew  it  in  any  human  being.  He  had 
that  sublime  sanctuary  in  his  pride  that  made 
him  almost  insensitive  to  what  would  by  other 
230 


Wendell  Phillips 

'men  be  considered  obloquy.  It  was  as  if  he 
said  every  day,  in  himself,  "  I  am  not  what 
they  are  firing  at.  I  am  not  there,  and  I  am 
not  that.  It  is  not  against  me.  I  am  in 
finitely  superior  to  what  they  think  me  to  be. 
They  do  not  know  me."  It  was  quiet  and 
unpretentious,  but  it  was  there.  Conscience 
and  pride  were  the  two  concurrent  elements 
of  his  nature. 

He  lived  to  see  the  slave  emancipated,  but 
not  by  moral  means.  He  lived  to  see  the 
sword  cut  the  fetter.  After  this  had  taken 
place  he  was  too  young  to  retire,  though  too 
old  to  gather  laurels  of  literature  or  to  seek 
professional  honours.  The  impulse  of  hu 
manity  was  not  at  all  abated.  His  soul  still 
flowed  on  for  the  great  under-masses  of  man 
kind,  though  like  the  Nile  it  split  up  into 
diverse  mouths,  and  not  all  of  them  were  navi 
gable. 

After  a  long  and  stormy  life  his  sun  went 
down  in  glory.  All  the  English-speaking 
people  on  the  globe  have  written  among  the 
names  that  shall  never  die,  the  name  of  that 
scoffed,  detested,  mob-beaten  Wendell  Phillips. 
Boston,  that  persecuted  and  would  have  slain 
him,  is  now  exceedingly  busy  in  building  his 
tomb  and  rearing  his  statue.  The  men  that 
231 


Lectures  and  Orations 

would  not  defile  their  lips  with  his  name  arc 
to-day  thanking  God  that  he  lived. 

He  has  taught  a  lesson  that  the  young  will 
do  well  to  take  heed  to — the  lesson  that  the 
most  splendid  gifts  and  opportunities  and  am 
bitions  may  be  best  used  for  the  dumb  and 
the  lowly.  His  whole  life  is  a  rebuke  to  the 
idea  that  we  are  to  climb  to  greatness  by 
climbing  up  on  the  backs  of  great  men  ;  that 
we  are  to  gain  strength  by  running  with  the 
currents  of  life  ;  that  we  can  from  without  add 
anything  to  the  great  within  that  constitutes 
man.  He  poured  out  the  precious  ointment 
of  his  soul  upon  the  feet  of  that  diffusive  Jesus 
who  suffers  here  in  His  poor  and  despised 
ones.  He  has  taught  the  young  ambitions 
too — that  the  way  to  glory  is  the  way,  often 
times,  of  adhesion  simply  to  principle ;  and 
that  popularity  and  unpopularity  are  not 
things  to  be  known  or  considered.  Do  right 
and  rejoice.  If  to  do  right  will  bring  you  into 
trouble,  rejoice  that  you  are  counted  worthy 
to  suffer  with  God  and  the  providences  of  God* 
in  this  world. 

He  belongs  to  the  race  of  giants,  not  simply 

because  he  was  in  and  of  himself  a  great  soul, 

but  because  he  bathed  in  the  providence  of 

God,  and  came  forth  scarcely  less  than  a  god  ; 

232 


Wendell  Phillips 

because  he  gave  himself  to  the  work  of  God 
upon  earth,  and  inherited  thereby,  or  had  re 
flected  upon  him,  some  of  the  majesty  of  his 
master.  When  pigmies  are  all  dead,  the  noble 
countenance  of  Wendell  Phillips  will  still  look 
forth,  radiant  as  a  rising  sun — a  sun  that  will 
never  set.  He  has  become  to  us  a  lesson,  his 
death  an  example,  his  whole  history  an  en 
couragement  to  manhood — to  heroic  man 
hood. 


233 


VIII 
EULOGY  ON  GRANT1 

ANOTHER  name  is  added  to  the  roll  of 
those  whom  the  world  will  not  willingly 
let  die.  A  few  years  since  storm-clouds  filled 
his  heaven,  and  obloquy,  slander  and  bitter 
lies  rained  down  upon  him. 

The  clouds  are  all  blown  away,  under  a 
serene  sky  he  laid  down  his  life,  and  the  Na 
tion  wept.  The  path  to  his  tomb  is  worn 
by  the  feet  of  innumerable  pilgrims.  The 
mildewed  lips  of  Slander  are  silent,  and  even 
Criticism  hesitates  lest  some  incautious  word 
should  mar  the  history  of  the  modest,  gentle, 
magnanimous  Warrior. 

The  whole  Nation  watched  his  passage 
through  humiliating  misfortunes  with  un 
feigned  sympathy ;  the  whole  world  sighed 
when  his  life  ended  !  At  his  burial  the  un- 
sworded  hands  of  those  whom  he  had  fought 
lifted  his  bier  and  bore  him  to  his  tomb  with 
love  and  reverence. 

1  Delivered  at  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  October  22,  1885. 
Grant's  death  occurred  on  July  18,  1885. 

234 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

Grant  made  no  claim  to  saintship.  He  was 
a  man  of  like  passions,  and  with  as  marked 
limitations  as  other  men.  Nothing  could  be 
more  distasteful  to  his  honest,  modest  soul  while 
living,  and  nothing  more  unbecoming  to  his 
memory,  than  lying  exaggerations  and  ful 
some  flatteries. 

Men  without  faults  are  apt  to  be  men  with 
out  force.  A  round  diamond  has  no  brilliancy. 
Lights  and  shadows,  hills  and  valleys,  give 
beauty  to  the  landscape.  The  faults  of  great 
and  generous  natures  are  often  overripe  good 
ness,  or  the  shadows  which  their  virtues  cast. 

Three  elements  enter  into  the  career  of  a 
great  citizen : 

That  which  his  ancestry  gives ; 

That  which  opportunity  gives  ; 

That  which  his  will  develops. 

Grant  came  from  a  sturdy  New  England 
stock  ;  New  England  derived  it  from  Scotland ; 
Scotland  bred  it,  at  a  time  when  Covenanters 
and  Puritans  were  made — men  of  iron  con 
sciences  hammered  out  upon  the  anvil  of  ad 
versity.  From  New  England  the  stream 
flowed  to  the  Ohio,  where  it  enriched  the 
soil  till  it  brought  forth  abundant  harvests  of 
great  men.  When  it  was  Grant's  time  to  be 
born,  he  came  forth  without  celestial  portents, 
235 


Lectures  and  Orations 

and  his  youth  had  in  it  no  prophecy  of  his 
manhood.  His  boyhood  was  wholesome,  ro 
bust,  with  a  vigorous  frame.  With  a  heart 
susceptible  of  tender  love,  he  yet  was  not 
social.  He  was  patient  and  persistent.  He 
loved  horses,  and  could  master  them.  That  is 
a  good  sign. 

Grant  had  no  art  of  creating  circumstances ; 
opportunity  must  seek  him,  or  else  he  would 
plod  through  life  without  disclosing  the  gifts 
which  God  hid  in  him.  The  gold  in  the  hills 
cannot  disclose  itself.  It  must  be  sought  and 
dug. 

A  sharp  and  wiry  politician,  for  some  reason 
of  Providence,  performed  a  generous  deed,  in 
sending  young  Grant  to  West  Point.  He  fin 
ished  his  course  there,  distinguished  as  a  skill 
ful  and  bold  rider,  with  an  inclination  to 
mathematics,  with  little  taste  for  the  theory 
and  literature  of  war,  but  with  sympathy  for 
its  external  and  material  developments.  In 
boyhood  and  youth  he  was  marked  by  sim 
plicity,  candour,  veracity  and  silence. 

After  leaving  the  Academy  he  saw  service 
in  Mexico,  and  afterwards  in  California,  but 
without  conspicuous  results. 

Then  came  a  clouded  period,  a  sad  life  of 
irresolute  vibration  between  self-indulgence 

236 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

"and  aspiration,  through  intemperance.  He 
resigned  from  the  army,  and  at  that  time  one 
would  have  feared  that  his  life  would  end  in 
eclipse.  Hercules  crushed  two  serpents  sent 
to  destroy  him  in  his  cradle.  It  was  later  in 
his  life  that  Grant  destroyed  the  enemy  that 
"  biteth  like  a  serpent  and  stingeth  like  an 
adder." 

At  length  he  struck  at  the  root  of  the  mat 
ter.  Others  agree  not  to  drink,  which  is  good ; 
Grant  overcame  the  wish  to  drink — which  is 
better.  But  the  cloud  hung  over  his  reputa 
tion  for  many  years,  and  threatened  his  ascend 
ency  when  better  days  came.  Of  all  his  vic 
tories,  many  and  great,  this  was  the  greatest, 
that  he  conquered  himself.  His  will  was 
stronger  than  his  passions. 

Poor,  much  shattered,  he  essayed  farming. 
Carrying  wood  for  sale  to  St.  Louis  did  not 
seem  to  be  that  for  which  he  was  created  ; 
neither  did  planting  crops,  nor  raising  cattle. 

Tanning  is  an  honourable  calling,  and,  to 
many,  a  road  to  wealth.  Grant  found  no  gold 
in  the  tan  vat. 

Then  he  became  a  listless  merchant — a 
silent,  unsocial  and  rather  moody  waiter  upon 
petty  traffic. 

He  was  a  good  subaltern,  a  poor  farmer,  a 

237 


Lectures  and  Orations 

worse  tanner,  a  worthless  trafficker.  Without 
civil  experience,  without  literary  gifts,  too 
diffident  to  be  ambitious,  too  modest  to  put 
himself  forward,  too  honest  to  be  a  politician, 
he  was  of  all  men  the  least  likely  to  attain 
eminence,  and  absolutely  unfitted,  apparently, 
for  preeminence ;  yet  God's  providence  se 
lected  him. 

When  the  prophet  Samuel  went  forth  to 
anoint  a  successor  to  the  impetuous  and  im 
perious  King  Saul,  he  caused  all  the  children 
of  Jesse  to  pass  before  him.  He  rejected  one 
by  one  the  whole  band.  At  length  the 
youngest  called  from  among  the  flock  came  in, 
and  the  Lord  said  to  Samuel, "  Arise,  this  is 
he"  and  Samuel  took  the  horn  of  oil  and 
anointed  him  in  the  midst  of  his  brethren,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon  him  from 
that  day  forward. 

Ordained  was  Grant  with  the  ointment  of 
war — black  and  sulphurous. 

Had  Grant  died  at  the  tan-yard,  or  from 
behind  the  counter,  the  world  would  never 
have  suspected  that  it  had  lost  a  hero.  He 
would  have  fallen  as  an  undistinguishable  leaf 
among  the  millions  cast  down  every  year. 
His  time  had  not  come.  It  was  plain  that  he 
had  no  capacity  to  create  his  opportunity.  It 

238 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

'must  find  him  out,  or  he  would  die  ignoble  and 
unknown ! 

It  was  coming  !  Already  the  clouds  afar  off 
were  gathering.  He  saw  them  not.  No  figures 
were  seen  upon  the  dim  horizon  of  the  already 
near  future. 

The  insulted  flag ;  the  garments  rolled  in 
blood  ;  a  million  men  in  arms  ;  the  sulphurous 
smoke  of  battle ;  gory  heaps  upon  desperate 
battle-fields  ;  an  army  of  slowly  moving  crip 
pled  heroes  ;  graveyards  populous  as  cities  ; 
they  were  all  in  the  clouded  horizon,  though 
he  saw  them  not ! 

Let  us  look  upon  the  scene  on  which  he 
was  soon  to  exert  a  mighty  energy. 

This  continent  lay  waiting  through  ages  for 
the  seed  of  civilization.  At  length  a  sower 
came  forth  to  sow.  While  he  sowed  the  good 
seed  of  liberty  and  Christian  civilization,  an 
enemy,  darkling,  sowed  tares.  They  sprang 
up  and  grew  together.  The  Constitution 
cradled  both  Slavery  and  Liberty.  While  yet 
ungrovvn  they  dwelt  together  in  peace.  They 
snarled  in  youth,  quarrelled  when  half  grown, 
and  fought  when  of  full  age.  The  final  catas 
trophe  was  inevitable.  No  finesse,  no  device 
or  compromise  could  withstand  the  inevitable. 
The  conflict  began  in  Congress ;  it  drifted  into 
239 


Lectures  and  Orations 

commerce  ;  it  rose  into  the  very  air,  and  public 
sentiment  grew  hot,  and  raged  in  the  pulpit, 
the  forum,  and  in  politics. 

The  South,  like  a  queenly  beauty,  grew 
imperious  and  exacting ;  the  North,  like  an 
obsequious  suitor,  knelt  at  her  feet,  only  to 
receive  contempt  and  mockery. 

Both  parties,  Whig  and  Democrat,  drank  of 
the  cup  of  her  sorcery.  It  killed  the  Whig 
party.  The  Democrat  was  tougher,  and  was 
only  besotted.  A  few,  like  John  the  Baptist, 
were  preaching  repentance,  but,  like  him,  they 
were  in  the  wilderness,  and  seemed  rude  and 
shaggy  fanatics. 

If  a  wise  moderation  had  possessed  the 
South,  if  they  had  conciliated  the  North,  if 
they  had  met  the  just  scruples  of  honest  men, 
who,  hating  slavery,  dreaded  the  dishonour  of 
breaking  the  compacts  of  the  Constitution,  the 
South  might  have  held  control  for  another 
hundred  years.  It  was  not  to  be.  God  sent 
a  strong  delusion  upon  them. 

Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  all  parties 
in  the  State  were  drifting  in  the  dark,  without 
any  comprehension  of  the  elemental  causes  at 
work.  Without  prescience  or  sagacity,  like 
ignorant  physicians,  they  prescribed  at  random; 
they  sewed  on  patches,  new  compromise  upon 
240 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

t>ld  garments  ;  they  sought  to  conceal  the  real 
depth  and  danger  of  the  gathering  torrent  by 
crying  "  Peace,  peace  ! "  to  each  other.  In 
short,  they  were  seeking  to  medicate  volcanoes 
and  stop  earthquakes  by  administering  political 
quinine.  The  wise  statesmen  were  bewildered 
and  politicians  were  juggling  fools. 

The  South  had  laid  the  foundation  of  her 
industry,  her  commerce,  and  her  commonwealth 
upon  slavery.  It  was  slavery  that  inspired 
her  councils,  that  engorged  her  philanthropy, 
that  corrupted  her  political  economy  and  the 
ology,  that  disturbed  all  the  ways  of  active 
politics ;  broke  up  sympathy  between  North 
and  South.  As  Ahab  met  Elijah  with,  "  Art 
thou  he  that  troubleth  Israel  ? "  so  Slavery 
charged  the  sentiments  of  Freedom  with  vexa 
tious  meddling  and  unwarrantable  interference. 

The  South  had  builded  herself  upon 'the 
rock  of  Slavery.  It  lay  in  the  very  channels 
of  civilization,  like  some  Flood  Rock  lying 
sullen  off  Hell  Gate.  The  tides  of  controversy 
rushed  upon  it  and  split  into  eddies  and  swirling 
pools,  bringing  incessant  disaster.  The  rock 
would  not  move.  It  must  be  removed.  It 
was  the  South  itself  that  furnished  the  engineers. 
Arrogance  in  council  sank  the  shaft,  Violence 
chambered  the  subterranean  passages,  and  In- 
241 


Lectures  and  Orations 

fatuation  loaded  them  with  infernal  dynamite. 
All  was  secure.  Their  rock  was  their  fortress. 
The  hand  that  fired  upon  Sumter  exploded  the 
mine,  and  tore  the  fortress  to  atoms.  For  one 
moment  it  rose  into  the  air  like  spectral  hills 
— for  one  moment  the  waters  rocked  with 
wild  confusion,  then  settled  back  to  quiet,  and 
the  way  of  civilization  was  opened  ! 

The  spark  that  was  kindled  at  Fort  Sumter 
fell  upon  the  North,  like  fire  upon  autumnal 
prairies.  Men  came  together  in  the  presence 
of  this  universal  calamity  with  sudden  fusion. 
They  forgot  all  separations  of  politics,  parties, 
or  even  of  religion  itself.  It  was  a  conflagra 
tion  of  patriotism.  The  bugle  and  the  drum 
rang  out  in  every  neighbourhood,  the  plough 
stood  still  in  the  furrow,  the  hammer  dropped 
from  the  anvil,  book  and  pen  were  forgotten, 
pulpit  and  forum,  court  and  shop,  felt  the 
electric  shock.  Parties  dissolved  and  re 
formed.  The  Democratic  party  sent  forth  a 
host  of  noble  men,  and  swelled  the  Republican 
ranks,  and  gave  many  noble  leaders  and  irre 
sistible  energy  to  the  Hosts  of  War.  The 
whole  land  became  a  military  school. 

When  once  the  North  had  organized  its 
armies,  there  was  soon  disclosed  an  amiable 
folly  of  conciliation.  It  hoped  for  some  peace- 
242 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

able  way  out  of  the  war ;  generals  seemed  to 
fight  so  that  no  one  should  be  hurt ;  they  saw 
the  mirage  of  future  parties  above  the  battle 
field,  and  anxiously  considered  the  political  ef 
fect  of  their  military  conduct.  They  were 
fighting  not  to  break  down  rebellion,  but  to 
secure  a  future  presidency — or  governorship. 
The  South  had  smelted  into  a  glowing  mass. 
It  believed  in  its  course  with  an  infatuation 
that  would  have  been  glorious  if  the  cause  had 
been  better !  It  put  its  whole  soul  into  war — 
and  struck  hard  ! 

The  South  fought  throughout  for  slavery 
and  independence.  The  North  fought  for 
Union,  but  at  first  its  leaders  seemed  aiming 
chiefly  at  securing  political  success  after  the 
War.  Thus  for  two  years,  not  unmarked  by 
great  deeds,  the  war  lingered.  Lincoln,  sad 
and  sorrowful,  felt  the  moderation  of  his  gen 
erals,  and  longed  for  a  man  of  iron  mould, 
who  had  but  two  words  in  his  military 
vocabulary,  VICTORY  or  ANNIHILATION. 

He  was  coming  !  He  was  heard  from  at 
Forts  Henry  and  Donelson. 

Four   great  names   were  rising  to  sight — 

Sherman,  Thomas,  Sheridan  ;  and  larger  than 

either,  Grant !     With   his  advent  the  armies, 

with   some   repulses,   went   steadily    forward, 

243 


Lectures  and  Orations 

from  conquering  to  conquer.  Aside  from  all 
military  qualities,  he  had  one  absorbing  spirit 
— the  Union  must  be  saved,  the  rebellion  must 
be  beaten,  the  Confederate  armies  must  be 
threshed  to  chaff  as  on  a  summer  threshing 
floor.  He  had  no  political  ambition,  no 
imaginary  reputation  to  preserve  or  gain.  A 
great  genius  for  grand  strategy,  a  comprehen 
sion  of  complex  and  vast  armies,  caution, 
prudence  and  silence  while  preparing,  an  end 
less  patience,  an  indomitable  will,  and  a  real, 
downright  fighting  quality. 

Thus  at  length  Grant  was  really  born  !  He 
had  lain  in  the  nest  for  long  as  an  infertile  egg. 
The  brooding  of  War  hatched  the  egg,  and  an 
eagle  came  forth  ! 

It  is  impossible  to  reach  the  full  measure  of 
Grant's  military  genius  until  we  survey  the 
greatness  of  this  most  extraordinary  war  of 
modern  days,  or  it  may  be  said  of  any  age. 

For  more  than  four  years  there  were  more 
than  a  million  men  on  each  side,  stretched  out 
upon  a  line  of  between  one  and  two  thousand 
miles,  and  a  blockade  rigorously  enforced 
along  a  coast  of  an  equal  extent.  During  thnt 
time,  counting  no  battle  in  which  there  were 
not  five  hundred  Union  men  engaged,  there 
244 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

were  fought  more  than  two  thousand  engage 
ments — two  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
one  of  record. 

Amid  this  sea  of  blood,  there  shot  up  great 
battles,  that  for  numbers,  fighting  and  losses, 
will  rank  with  the  great  battles  of  the  world. 

In  1862  the  losses  by  death,  wounds  and 
missing  on  both  sides,  as  extracted  from  Gov 
ernment  Records,  were  nearly  half  a  million. 

Over  26,000  Northern  soldiers  died  in 
captivity.  If  we  reckon  all  who  perished 
in  field  and  hospital  on  both  sides,  nearly  a 
million  died  in  that  War. 

The  number  must  be  largely  swelled  if  we 
add  all  who  died  at  home,  of  sickness  and 
wounds  received  in  the  campaigns. 

The  Secretary  of  War,  in  his  report,  dated 
November  22,  1865,  makes  the  following  re 
marks,  which  show  more  than  anything  else 
the  spirit  animating  the  people  of  the  loyal 
States :  "  On  several  occasions,  when  troops 
were  promptly  needed  to  avert  impending  dis 
aster,  vigorous  exertion  brought  them  into  the 
field  from  remote  States  with  incredible  speed. 
Official  reports  show  that  after  the  disasters  on 
the  Peninsula,  in  1862,  over  80,000  troops 
were  enlisted,  organized,  armed,  equipped,  and 
sent  into  the  field  in  less  than  a  month.  Sixty 
245 


Lectures  and  Orations 

thousand  troops  have  repeatedly  gone  to  the 
field  within  four  weeks.  Ninety  thousand  in 
fantry  were  sent  to  the  armies  from  the  five 
States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and 
Wisconsin,  within  twenty  days.  When  Lee 
surrendered,  thousands  of  recruits  were  pour 
ing  in,  and  men  were  discharged  from  recruit 
ing  stations  and  rendezvous  in  every  State." 

Into  this  sulphurous  storm  of  war  Grant 
entered  almost  unknown.  It  was  with  diffi 
culty  that  he  could  obtain  a  command.  Once 
set  forward,  Donaldson,  Shiloh,  Vicksburg, 
Chickamauga,  The  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania, 
Petersburg,  Appomattox,  these  were  his  foot 
steps.  In  four  years  he  had  risen,  without 
political  favour,  from  the  bottom  to  the  very 
highest  command — not  second  to  any  living 
commander  in  all  the  world  ! 

His  plans  were  large,  his  undiscouraged  will 
was  patient  to  obduracy.  He  was  not  fighting 
for  reputation,  nor  for  the  display  of  general 
ship,  nor  for  a  future  Presidency.  He  had  but 
one  motive,  and  that  as  intense  as  life  itself — the 
subjugation  of  the  rebellion  and  the  restoration 
of  the  broken  Union.  He  embodied  the  feel 
ings  of  the  common  people.  He  was  their 
perfect  representative.  The  war  was  waged 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  the  sup- 
246 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

pression  of  armed  resistance,  and,  at  length, 
for  the  eradication  of  Slavery.  Every  step, 
from  Donelson  to  Appomattox,  evinced  with 
increasing  intensity  this  his  one  terrible  pur 
pose.  He  never  wavered,  turned  aside,  or 
dallied. 

In  all  this  career  he  never  lost  courage  or 
equanimity.  With  a  million  men,  for  whose 
movements  he  was  responsible,  he  yet  carried 
a  tranquil  mind,  neither  depressed  by  disas 
ters,  nor  elated  by  success.  Gentle  of  heart, 
familiar  with  all,  never  boasting,  always  mod 
est — Grant  came  of  the  old  self-contained 
stock,  men  of  a  simple  force  of  being,  which 
allied  his  genius  to  the  great  elemental  forces 
of  Nature,  silent,  invisible,  irresistible.  When 
his  work  was  done,  and  the  defeat  of  Con 
federate  armies  was  final,  this  dreadful  man  of 
blood  was  as  tender  towards  his  late  adversaries 
as  a  woman  towards  her  son.  He  imposed  no 
humiliating  conditions,  spared  the  feelings  of 
his  antagonists,  sent  home  the  disbanded 
Southern  men  with  food  and  with  horses  for 
working  their  crops,  and  when  a  revengeful 
spirit  in  the  Executive  Chair  showed  itself,  and 
threatened  the  chief  Southern  generals,  Grant 
indignantly  interposed  himself,  and  compelled 
his  superior  to  relinquish  his  rash  purpose. 
247 


Lectures  and  Orations 

There  have  been  men — there  are  yet — for 
stupidity  is  long-lived — who  regard  Grant  as 
only  "  a  man  of  luck."  Surely  he  was  !  Is  it 
not  luck  through  such  an  ancestry  to  have 
had  conferred  upon  him  such  a  body,  such  a 
disposition,  such  greatness  of  soul,  such  pa 
triotism  unalloyed  by  ambition,  such  military 
genius,  such  an  indomitable  will,  and  such  a 
capacity  for  handling  the  largest  armies  ? 

For  four  years  and  more  this  man  of  con 
tinuous  Luck,  across  a  rugged  continent,  in 
the  face  of  armies  of  men  as  brave  as  his 
own,  commanded  by  generals  of  extraordi 
nary  ability,  performed  every  function  of 
strategy  in  grand  War,  which  Jomini  at 
tributes  to  Napoleon  and  his  greatest  mar 
shals,  and  Napier  to  Wellington.  Whether 
Grant  could  have  conducted  a  successful  retreat 
cannot  be  known.  He  was  never  defeated. 

Grant  has  been  severely  criticized  for  the 
waste  of  life.  War  is  not  created  for  the  pur 
pose  of  saving  life,  but  by  a  noble  spending 
of  blood  to  save  the  Commonwealth.  Trfe 
great  end  which  he  achieved  would  have  been 
cheaply  gained,  at  double  the  expense. 

But  we  are  not  to  forget  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  conduct  of  the  last  great  cam 
paign  was  committed  to  him.  For  four  years 
248 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

the  heroic  and  patient  Army  of  the  Potomac 
had  squandered  blood  and  treasure  without 
measure,  and  had  gained  not  a  step.  With 
generals  many,  excellently  skilled  in  logis 
tics,  skillful  in  everything  but  success,  they 
fought  and  retreated ;  they  dug,  they  waded, 
they  advanced  and  retreated.  They  went 
down  to  Richmond  and  looked  upon  it,  and 
came  back  to  defend  Washington. 

Their  victories  were  fruitless.  Antietam 
was  ably  fought,  but  weakly  followed  up. 
Gettysburg,  with  hideous  slaughter,  checked 
Lee's  Northward  advance  and  sent  him  back — 
but  unpursued,  undestroyed,  though  he  waited 
three  or  four  days,  helpless,  cooped- up. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  needed  a  general 
who  knew  how  to  employ  their  splendid 
bravery,  their  all-enduring  pluck.  They  had 
danced  long  enough ;  they  had  led  off — 
changed  partners — chassed — they  had  gone 
into  campaigns  with  slow  and  solemn  music, but 
returned  with  quick-steps.  They  seemed  de 
sirous  of  making  war  so  as  not  to  exasperate 
the  South. 

Do  not  men  know  that  nothing  spends  life 

faster  than  unfighting  war  ?     Disease  is  more 

deadly  than  the  bullet.     In  all  the  war,    but 

one  out  of   every    forty-two   that   died    were 

249 


Lectures  and  Orations 

slain  by  the  bullet,  and  one  out  of  every 
thirteen  by  disease.  Six  million  men  passed 
through  the  hospitals  during  the  war;  over 
three  million  with  malarial  diseases. 

It  seemed  doubtful  whether  the  Government 
was  putting  down  rebellion,  or  whether  Lee 
was  putting  down  the  Government.  An  emi 
nent  critic  says  :  "  The  fire  and  passion,  down 
right  earnestness  and  self- abandon  that  the 
South  threw  into  the  struggle  at  the  outset 
and  maintained  for  two  full  years,  had,  it 
must  be  admitted,  so  far  impaired  the  morale 
of  the  Union  forces,  that  while  courage  was 
nowhere  wanting,  self-confidence  had  been 
seriously  diminished.  This  was  especially  true 
of  the  devoted  and  decimated  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  whose  commanders,  after  the  first 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  always  appeared  to  be 
afraid  of  exasperating  the  enemy.  Driving 
Lee  to  extremities  was  the  one  thing  that  they 
were  all  loth  to  do.  They  would  fight  to  the 
last  drop  of  blood  to  defend  Washington,  to 
hold  their  own,  to  preserve  the  Union,  but  "to 
corner  the  enemy,  to  drive  him  to  desperation, 
to  make  him  shed  the  last  drop  of  his  own 
blood,  was  the  one  thing  they  would  not  do, 
and  no  amount  of  urging  could  make  them  do 
it.  It  was  this  arriere  pens'ee  that  held  the 
250 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

Hand  of  McClellan  and  of  Meade  after  Antic- 
tarn  and  Gettysburg.  Both  of  these  engage 
ments  were  victories  for  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  and  both  were  robbed  of  their  fruits 
by  a  lurking  fear  of  the  lion  at  bay.  « They 
are  shooing  the  enemy  out  of  Maryland/  said 
Lincoln,  with  his  peculiar  aptness  and  home 
liness." 

When  Grant  came  to  the  Army  of  the  Po 
tomac,  he  reversed  the  methods  of  all  who 
preceded  him.  Braver  soldiers  never  were, 
nor  more  valiant  commanders ;  but  the  gen 
erals  had  not  learned  the  art  of  fighting  with 
deadly  intent.  Peace  is  very  good  for  peace, 
but  war  is  organized  rage.  It  means  destruc 
tion  or  it  means  nothing. 

At  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  Grant 
stripped  his  commissary  train  of  its  guards  to 
fill  a  gap  in  the  line  of  battle.  When  expos 
tulated  with  for  exposing  his  army  to  the  loss 
of  all  its  provisions,  his  reply  was : 

"  When  this  army  is  whipped,  it  will  not 
want  any  provisions" 

All  summer,  all  the  autumn,  all  the  winter, 
all  the  spring,  and  early  summer  again,  he 
hammered  Lee,  with  blow  on  blow,  until,  at 
Appomattox,  the  great,  but  not  greatest, 
Southern  general  went  to  the  ground. 
251 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Grant  was  a  great  fighter,  but  not  a  fighter 
only. 

His  mind  took  in  the  whole  field  of  war — 
as  wide  and  complex  as  any  that  ever  Napoleon 
knew.  He  combined  in  his  plans  the  opera 
tions  of  three  armies,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
the  war,  the  whole  of  the  Union  forces  were 
acting  in  concert. 

He  had  the  patience  of  Fate,  and  the  force  of 
Thor.  If  he  neglected  the  rules  of  war,  as  at 
Vicksburg,  it  was  to  make  better  rules,  for  those 
who  were  strong  enough  to  employ  them. 

Counsellors  gave  him  materials.  He  formed 
his  own  plans.  Abhorring  show,  simple  in 
manner,  gentle  in  his  intercourse,  modest  and 
even  diffident  in  regard  to  his  own  personality, 
he  seems  to  have  been  the  only  man  in  camp 
who  was  ignorant  of  his  own  greatness. 
Never  was  a  commander  etter  served, 
never  were  subordinates  more  magnanimously 
treated.  The  fame  of  his  generals  was  as 
dear  to  him  as  his  own.  Those  who  might 
have  been  expected  to  be  his  rivals  were  Jiis 
bosom  friends.  While  there  were  envies  and 
jealousies  among  minor  officers,  the  great 
names,  Grant,  Thomas,  Sherman,  Sheridan, 
give  to  history  a  new  instance  of  a  great 
friendship  between  great  warriors. 
252 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

*  Some  future  day  a  Napier  will  picture  the 
final  drama :  the  breaking  up  of  Lee's  right 
wing  at  Five  Forks ;  Lee's  retreat ;  Grant's 
grim,  relentless  pursuit ;  Sheridan,  like  a  rag 
ing  lion,  heading  off  the  fleeing  armies,  that 
were  wearied,  worn,  decimated,  conquered ; 
and,  at  the  end,  the  modesty  of  the  victorious 
general ;  the  delicacy  with  which  he  treated 
his  beaten  foe;  the  humanity  of  the  terms 
given  to  the  men — sent  away  with  food,  and 
horses  for  their  farms ;  all  this  will  form  a 
picture  of  War  and  of  Peace. 

Grant  never  forgot  that  the  South  was  part 
of  his  country.  The  moment  that  the  South 
lay  panting  and  helpless  upon  the  ground,  he 
carried  himself  with  magnanimous  and  sym 
pathetic  consideration.  After  the  fall  of  Rich 
mond  he  quietly  returned  to  Washington, 
without  entering  the  conquered  capital. 

When  Johnston  surrendered  to  Sherman 
upon  terms  not  agreeable  to  Lincoln,  Stanton, 
like  a  roaring  lion  fearing  to  lose  its  prey,  sent 
Grant  to  overrule  the  victor.  Grant  loved 
Sherman,  and  was  unwilling  to  enter  his  camp 
lest  he  should  seem  to  snatch  from  him  the  glory 
of  his  illustrious  campaign.  From  a  near  town 
he  enabled  Sherman  to  reconstruct  his  terms, 
and  accept  General  Johnston's  surrender. 
253 


Lectures  and  Orations 

When  Lincoln  was  dead,  Vice-President 
Johnson  became  President ;  a  man  well  fitted 
for  carrying  on  a  fight,  but  not  skilled  in 
peace.  With  a  morbid  sense  of  justice,  he  de 
termined  that  the  leaders  of  rebellion  should 
be  made  to  suffer  as  examples  ;  as  if  the  death 
of  all  the  first-born,  the  desolation  of  every 
Southern  home,  the  impoverished  condition 
and  bankruptcy  of  every  citizen  were  not  ex 
ample  enough  !  He  ordered  Lee  to  be  arrested. 
Grant  refused.  When  Johnson  would  have 
employed  the  army  to  effect  his  purposes, 
Grant,  with  quick  but  noble  rebellion,  refused 
obedience  to  his  superior,  and,  arranging  to 
take  from  his  hands  all  military  control,  re 
pressed  the  President's  wild  temper  and  savage 
purpose  of  a  dishonouring  justice. 

Having  brought  the  long  and  disastrous  war 
to  a  close,  in  his  own  heart  Grant  would  have 
chosen  to  have  rested  upon  his  laurels,  and 
lived  a  retired  military  life.  It  was  not  to  be 
permitted.  He  was  called  to  the  Presidency 
by  universal  acclaim,  and  it  fell  to  him  to  con 
duct  a  campaign  of  Reconstruction  even  more 
burdensome  than  the  war. 

It  would  seem  impossible  to  combine  in  one, 
eminent  civil  and  military  genius.  To  a  cer 
tain  extent  they  have  elements  in  common. 
254 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

But  the  predominant  element  in  war  is  organ 
ized  Force;  of  civil  government,  Influence. 
Statesmanship  is  less  brilliant  than  generalship, 
but  requires  a  different  and  a  higher  moral  and 
intellectual  genius.  God  is  frugal  in  creating 
great  men — men  great  enough  to  hold  in  em 
inence  the  elements  of  a  great  general  and  of 
a  great  ruler.  Washington  was  eminent  in 
statesmanship  and  a  daring  warrior — but  then 
he  was  not  a  great  general :  or,  if  he  was,  he 
had  no  opportunity  to  develop  the  fact. 

Alexander  was  a  mere  brutal  fighter. 

Csesar  as  Emperor  differed  from  Caesar  as 
General  only  as  a  sword  sheathed  differs  from 
a  sword  unsheathed. 

Frederick  the  Great  was  simply  a  military 
ruler. 

Napoleon  came  near  to  combine  the  two 
elements  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  career, 
but  the  genius  of  force  gradually  weakened 
that  sense  of  right  and  justice  on  which  states 
manship  must  rest. 

Grant  had  in  him  the  elements  of  great 
statesmanship ;  but  neither  his  education,  nor 
his  training,  nor  the  desperate  necessities  of 
war,  gave  it  a  fair  chance  of  development  in  a 
condition  of  things  which  bewildered  the 
wisest  statesmen. 

255 


Lectures  and  Orations 

The  tangled  skein  of  affairs  would  have 
tasked  a  Cavour  or  a  Bismarck.  The  Period 
of  Reconstruction  is  yet  too  near  our  war-in 
flamed  eyes  to  be  philosophically  judged. 

First  came  the  disbanding  of  the  army. 
That  was  so  easily  done  that  the  world  has 
never  done  justice  to  the  marvel.  The  soldiers 
of  three  great  armies  dropped  their  arms  at  the 
word  of  command,  dissolved  their  organiza 
tions,  and  disappeared.  To-day  the  mightiest 
force  on  earth — to-morrow  they  were  not ! 
As  a  summer  storm  darkens  the  whole  heavens, 
shakes  the  ground  with  its  thunder,  and 
empties  its  quiver  of  lightning,  and  is  gone  in 
an  hour,  as  if  it  had  never  been,  so  was  it  with 
both  armies.  Neither  in  the  South  nor  in  the 
North  was  there  a  cabal  of  officers,  nor  any 
affray  of  soldiers — for  every  soldier  was  yet 
more  a  citizen. 

In  this  resumption  of  citizen  life,  Grant,  ac 
companied  by  his  most  brilliant  generals,  led  the 
way.  He  hated  war,  its  very  insignia,  and  in  for 
eign  lands  refused  to  witness  military  pageants. 
He  had  had  enough  of  war.  He  loved  peace. 

When  advanced  to  the  Presidency,  three 
vital  questions  were  to  be  solved. 

i.  The  status  of  the  four  million  emanci 
pated  slaves. 

256 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

'2.  The  adjustment  of  the  political  relations 
of  the  dislocated  States. 

3.  The  restraint  and  control  of  that  Gulf 
Stream  of  finance  which  threatened  to  wash  out 
the  foundations  of  honest  industry,  and  which 
brought  to  the  Nation  more  moral  mischief 
than  had  the  whole  war  itself.  We  are  in 
peril  from  golden  quicksands  yet. 

Grant  was  eminently  wise  upon  this  ques 
tion.  His  Greenback  veto  saved  the  country 
from  a  vitiated  and  corrupting  circulation. 

The  exaltation  of  the  domestic  Africans  to 
immediate  citizenship  was  the  most  audacious 
act  of  faith  that  ever  was  witnessed. 

Their  fidelity  to  the  duties  of  bondage  was 
most  Christian.  In  all  the  war,  knowing  that 
their  emancipation  was  to  be  gained  or  lost, 
there  was  never  an  insurrection,  nor  a  recorded 
instance  of  cruelty  or  insubordination.  This 
came  not  from  cowardice  ;  for  when,  in  the  later 
periods  of  the  war,  they  were  enlisted  and  drilled, 
they  made  soldiers  so  brave  as  to  extort  ad 
miration  and  praise  from  prejudice  itself.  They 
deserved  their  liberty  for  their  good  conduct. 

But    were    they    prepared    for   citizenship  ? 
The  safety  of  our  civil  economy  rests  upon  the 
intelligence  of  the  citizen.     But  the  slaves  in 
mass  were  greatly  ignorant. 
257 


Lectures  and  Orations 

It  was  a  political  necessity  to  arm  them  with 
the  ballot  as  a  means  of  self-defense. 

In  many  of  the  Southern  States  a  probation 
ary  state  would  have  been  wiser,  but  in  others 
it  would  have  remanded  the  freedmen  to  sub 
stantial  bondage  at  the  hands  of  the  whites. 

In  this  grand  department  of  statesmanship 
President  Grant  accepted  the  views  of  the 
most  eminent  Republicans :  Stanton,  Chase, 
Sumner,  Thad.  Stevens,  Fessenden,  Sherman, 
Garfield,  Conkling,  Evarts,  and  of  all  the  great 
leaders. 

In  the  readjustment  of  the  political  relations 
of  the  South  he  was  wise,  generous,  and  mag 
nanimous.  Not  a  line  in  letter,  speech  or 
message  can  be  found  that  would  wound  the 
self-respect  of  Southern  citizens. 

When  the  dangerous  heresy  of  a  Greenback 
currency  had  gained  political  power,  and  Con 
gress  was  disposed  to  open  the  flood-gates  of 
a  rotten  currency,  his  veto,  an  act  of  courage, 
turned  back  the  deluge  and  saved  the  land  from 
a  whole  generation  of  mischief.  Had  he  done 
but  this  one  thing,  he  would  have  deserved 
well  of  History. 

The  respects  in  which  he  fell  below  the  line 
of  sound  statesmanship — and  these  are  not  a 
few — are  to  be  attributed  to  the  influence  of  ad- 
258 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

visers  whom  he  had  taken  into  his  confidence. 
Such  was  his  loyalty  to  friendship  that  it  must 
be  set  down  as  a  fault — a  fault  rarely  found 
among  public  men. 

Many  springs  of  mischief  were  opened  which 
still  flow.  When  it  was  proposed  to  nominate 
Grant  for  a  third  term,  the  real  objections  to 
the  movement  among  wise  and  dispassionate 
men  was  not  so  much  against  Grant  as  against 
the  staff  which  would  come  in  with  him. 

On  the  whole,  if  one  considers  the  intrinsic 
difficulty  of  the  questions  belonging  to  his  ad 
ministration,  the  stormy  days  of  politics  and 
parties  during  his  eight  years,  it  must  be  ad 
mitted  that  the  country  owes  to  his  unselfish 
disposition,  to  his  general  wisdom,  to  his  un 
sullied  integrity,  if  not  the  meed  of  wisest  yet 
the  reputation  of  one  who,  preeminent  in  war, 
was  eminent  in  administration,  more  perhaps 
by  the  wisdom  of  a  noble  nature  than  by  that 
intelligence  which  is  bred  only  by  experience. 
Imperious  counsellors  and  corrupt  parasites 
dimmed  the  light  of  his  political  administra 
tion. 

We  turn  from  Grant's  public  life  to  his  un- 

restful  private  life.     After  a  return  from  a  tour 

of  the  world,  during  which  he  met  on  all  hands 

a  distinguished  reception,  he  ventured   upon 

259 


Lectures  and  Orations 

the  dangerous  road  of  speculation.  The  desire 
of  large  wealth  was  deep-seated  in  Grant's 
soul.  His  early  experience  of  poverty  had 
probably  taken  away  from  it  all  romance. 
Had  wealth  been  sought  by  a  legitimate  pro 
duction  of  real  property,  he  would  have  added 
one  more  laurel  to  his  career.  But,  with 
childlike  simplicity  of  ignorance,  he  committed 
all  he  had  to  the  wild  chances  of  legalized 
gambling.  But  a  few  days  before  the  humil 
iating  crash  came,  he  believed  himself  to  be 
worth  three  millions  of  dollars  !  What  service 
had  been  rendered  for  it  ?  What  equivalent 
of  industry,  skill,  productiveness,  distribution 
or  convenience  ?  None.  Did  he  never  think 
that  this  golden  robe,  with  which  he  designed 
to  clothe  his  declining  years,  was  woven  of  air, 
was  in  its  nature  unsubstantial,  and  not  rep 
utable?  His  success  was  a  gorgeous  bubble, 
reflecting  on  its  brilliant  surface  all  the  hues  of 
heaven,  but  which  grew  thinner  as  it  swelled 
larger.  A  touch  dispelled  the  illusion,  and  left 
him  poor. 

It  is  a  significant  proof  of  the  impression 
produced  upon  the  public  mind  of  the  essential 
honour  of  his  mind,  and  of  the  simplicity  of 
his  ignorance  of  practical  business,  that  the 
whole  Nation  condoned  his  folly,  and  believed 
260 


Eulogy  on  Grant 

in  his  intentional  honesty.  But  the  iron  had 
entered  his  soul.  That  which  all  the  hardships 
of  war,  and  the  wearing  anxieties  of  public 
administration  could  not  do,  the  shame  and 
bitterness  of  this  great  Bankruptcy  achieved. 

The  resisting  forces  of  his  body  gave  way. 
A  disease  in  ambush  sprang  forth  and  carried 
him  captive.  Patiently  he  sat  in  the  region 
and  shadow  of  death.  A  mild  heroism  of 
gentleness  and  patience  hovered  about  him. 
The  iron  will  that  had  upheld  him  in  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  war,  still  in  a  gracious  guise 
sustained  his  lingering  hours. 

His  household  love,  never  tarnished,  never 
abated,  now  roused  him  to  one  last  heroic 
achievement — to  provide  for  the  future  of  his 
family.  No  longer  were  there  golden  hopes 
for  himself.  The  vision  of  wealth  had 
vanished.  But  love  took  its  place,  and  under 
weakness,  pain  and  anguish,  he  wrought  out  a 
history  of  his  remarkable  career.  A  kindly 
hand  administered  the  trust.  It  has  amply 
secured  his  loved  household  from  want. 

When  the  last  lines  were  written,  he  lay 
back  upon  his  couch  and  breathed  out  his 
great  soul  to  God,  whom  he  had  worshipped 
unostentatiously  after  the  manner  of  his  fathers. 

A  man  he  was  without  vices,  with  an 
261 


Lectures  and  Orations 

absolute  hatred  of  lies,  and  an  ineradicable 
love  of  truth,  of  a  perfect  loyalty  to  friendship, 
neither  envious  of  others  nor  selfish  for  him 
self.  With  a  zeal  for  the  public  good,  un 
feigned,  he  has  left  to  memory  only  such 
weaknesses  as  connect  him  with  humanity,  and 
such  virtues  as  will  rank  him  among  heroes. 

The  tidings  of  his  death,  long  expected, 
gave  a  shock  to  the  whole  world.  Govern 
ments,  rulers,  eminent  statesmen  and  scholars 
from  all  civilized  nations  gave  sincere  tokens 
of  sympathy.  For  the  hour,  sympathy  rolled 
as  a  wave  over  all  our  own  land.  It  closed 
the  last  furrow  of  war,  it  extinguished  the  last 
prejudice,  it  effaced  the  last  vestige  of  hatred 
— and  cursed  be  the  hand  that  shall  bring 
them  back ! 

Confederate  Johnston  and  Buckner  on  one 
side,  Federal  Sherman  and  Sheridan  upon  the 
other  of  his  bier,  he  has  come  to  his  tomb 
a  silent  symbol  that  Liberty  had  conquered 
Slavery ;  Patriotism,  Rebellion ;  and  Peace, 
War. 

He  rests  in  peace.  No  drum  or  cannon 
shall  disturb  him  more. 

Sleep,    Hero,  until   another   trumpet  shall 
shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth.     Then  come 
forth  to  glory  in  immortality ! 
262 


IX 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN1 

rT^HERE  is  no  historic  figure  more  noble 
1_  than  that  of  the  Jewish  lawgiver.  After 
so  many  thousand  years  the  figure  of  Moses 
is  not  diminished,  but  stands  up  against  the 
background  of  early  days  distinct  and  indi 
vidual  as  if  he  had  lived  but  yesterday.  There 
is  scarcely  another  event  in  history  more 
touching  than  his  death.  He  had  borne  the 
great  burdens  of  state  for  forty  years,  shaped 
the  Jews  to  a  nation,  filled  out  their  civil 
and  religious  polity,  administered  their  laws, 
guided  their  steps,  or  dealt  with  them  in  all 
their  journeyings  in  the  wilderness ;  had 
mourned  in  their  punishment,  kept  step  with 

1  At  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  Sunday  morning,  April 
23,  1865.  Mr.  Beecher,  returning  with  the  steamer's  guests 
from  the  Fort  Sumter  flag  raising  of  April  I4th,  met  in  New 
York  the  fatal  news  of  the  President's  assassination.  He 
went  direct  to  Peekskill,  and  the  following  Sunday  gave 
this  discourse.  His  text  was  Deuteronomy  xxxiv.  1-5, — the 
brief  account  of  how  Moses  was  led  by  the  Lord  to  the  top 
of  Mount  Pisgah,  whence  he  viewed  the  promised  land  of 
Canaan,  before  his  death  there  in  the  mountain. 
263 


Lectures  and  Orations 

their  march,  and  led  them  in  wars  until  the 
end  of  their  labours  drew  nigh.  The  last 
stage  was  reached.  Jordan,  only,  lay  between 
them  and  the  "  promised  land." 

The  Promised  Land !  O  what  yearnings 
had  heaved  his  breast  for  that  divinely  fore 
shadowed  place !  He  had  dreamed  of  it  by 
night,  and  mused  by  day;  it  was  holy  and 
endeared  as  God's  favoured  spot.  It  was  to 
be  the  cradle  of  an  illustrious  history.  All  his 
long,  laborious,  and  now  weary  life,  he  had 
aimed  at  this  as  the  consummation  of  every 
desire,  the  reward  of  every  toil  and  pain. 
Then  came  the  word  of  the  Lord  to  him : 
"  Thou  mayest  not  go  over.  Get  thee  up  into 
the  mountain  ;  look  upon  it ;  and  die  !  " 

From  that  silent  summit  the  hoary  leader 
gazed  to  the  north,  to  the  south,  to  the  west 
with  hungry  eyes.  The  dim  outlines  rose  up. 
The  hazy  recesses  spoke  of  quiet  valleys  be 
tween  hills.  With  eager  longing,  with  sad 
resignation,  he  looked  upon  the  promised 
land.  It  was  now  to  him  a  forbidden  land. 
This  was  but  a  moment's  anguish ;  he  forgot 
all  his  personal  wants,  and  drank  in  the  vision 
of  his  people's  home.  His  work  was  done. 
There  lay  God's  promise,  fulfilled.  There  was 
the  seat  of  coming  Jerusalem ;  there  the  city 
264 


Abraham  Lincoln 

of  Judah's  King;  the  sphere  of  judges  and 
prophets  ;  the  Mount  of  sorrow  and  salvation; 
the  nest  whence  were  to  fly  blessings  innu 
merable  to  all  mankind.  Joy  chased  sadness 
from  every  feature,  and  the  prophet  laid  him 
down,  and  died. 

Again  a  great  leader  of  the  people  has 
passed  through  toil,  sorrow,  battle,  and  war, 
and  come  near  to  the  promised  land  of  peace, 
into  which  he  might  not  pass  over.  Who 
shall  recount  our  martyr's  sufferings  for  this 
people !  Since  the  November  of  1 860,  his  hori 
zon  has  been  black  with  storms.  By  day  and 
by  night  he  trod  a  way  of  danger  and  darkness. 
On  his  shoulders  rested  a  government  dearer 
to  him  than  his  own  life.  At  its  integrity  mil 
lions  of  men  at  home  were  striking ;  upon  it 
foreign  eyes  lowered.  It  stood  like  a  lone 
island  in  a  sea  full  of  storms;  and  every  tide 
and  wave  seemed  eager  to  devour  it.  Upon 
thousands  of  hearts  great  sorrows  and  anxieties 
have  rested,  but  not  on  one,  such,  and  in  such 
measure,  as  upon  that  simple,  truthful,  noble 
soul,  our  faithful  and  sainted  Lincoln.  Never 
rising  to  the  enthusiasm  of  more  impassioned 
natures  in  hours  of  hope,  and  never  sinking 
with  the  mercurial  in  hours  of  defeat  to  the 
depths  of  despondency,  he  held  on  with  un- 

265 


Lectures  and  Orations 

movable  patience  and  fortitude,  putting  cau 
tion  against  hope  that  it  might  not  be  prema 
ture,  and  hope  against  caution  that  it  might 
not  yield  to  dread  and  danger.  He  wrestled 
ceaselessly,  through  four  black  and  dreadful 
purgatorial  years,  wherein  God  was  cleansing 
the  sins  of  His  people  as  by  fire. 

At  last  the  watcher  beheld  the  gray  dawn 
for  the  country.  The  mountains  began  to 
give  forth  their  forms  from  out  of  the  dark 
ness  ;  and  the  East  came  rushing  towards  us 
with  arms  full  of  joy  for  all  our  sorrows.  Then 
it  was  for  him  to  be  glad  exceedingly,  that  had 
sorrowed  immeasurably.  Peace  could  bring 
to  no  other  heart  such  joy,  such  rest,  such 
honour,  such  trust,  such  gratitude.  But  he 
looked  upon  it  as  Moses  looked  upon  the 
promised  land. 

Then  the  wail  of  a  nation  proclaimed  that 
he  had  gone  from  among  us. 

Not  thine  the  sorrow,  but  ours,  sainted 
soul !  Thou  hast  indeed  entered  into  the 
promised  land,  while  we  are  yet  on  the  march-. 
To  us  remain  the  rocking  of  the  deep,  the 
storm  upon  the  land,  days  of  duty  and  nights 
of  watching  ;  but  thou  art  sphered  high  above 
all  darkness  and  fear,  beyond  all  sorrow  and 
weariness.  Rest,  O  weary  heart!  Rejoice 
266 


Abraham  Lincoln 

exceedingly,  thou  that  hast  enough  suffered  ! 
Thou  hast  beheld  Him  who  invisibly  led  thee 
in  this  great  wilderness.  Thou  standest  among 
the  elect.  Around  thee  are  the  royal  men 
that  have  ennobled  human  life  in  every  age. 
Kingly  art  thou,  with  glory  on  thy  brow  as  a 
diadem.  And  joy  is  upon  thee  forevermore. 
Over  all  this  land,  over  all  the  little  cloud  of 
years  that  now  from  thine  infinite  horizon 
moves  back  as  a  speck,  thou  art  lifted  up  as 
high  as  a  star  is  above  the  clouds,  that  hide  us 
but  never  reach  it.  In  the  goodly  company 
of  Mount  Zion  thou  shalt  find  that  rest  which 
thou  hast  sorrowing  sought  here  in  vain  ;  and 
thy  name,  an  everlasting  name  in  heaven, 
shall  flourish  in  fragrance  and  beauty  as  long 
as  men  shall  last  upon  the  earth,  or  hearts  re 
main,  to  revere  truth,  fidelity,  and  goodness. 
Never  did  two  such  orbs  of  experience  meet 
in  one  hemisphere,  as  the  joy  and  the  sorrow 
of  the  same  week  in  this  land.  The  joy  of 
final  victory  was  as  sudden  as  if  no  man  had 
expected  it,  and  as  entrancing  as  if  it  had  fallen 
a  sphere  from  heaven.  It  rose  up  over  so 
briety,  and  swept  business  from  its  moorings, 
and  ran  down  through  the  land  in  irresistible 
course.  Men  embraced  each  other  in  brother 
hood  that  were  strangers  in  the  flesh.  They 
267 


Lectures  and  Orations 

sang,  or  prayed,  or,  deeper  yet,  many  could 
only  think  thanksgiving  and  weep  gladness. 
That  peace  was  sure ;  that  our  government  was 
firmer  than  ever ;  that  the  land  was  cleansed  of 
plague ;  that  the  ages  were  opening  to  our 
footsteps,  and  we  were  to  begin  a  march  of 
blessings  ;  that  blood  was  staunched,  and  scowl 
ing  enmities  were  sinking  like  storms  beneath 
the  horizon  ;  that  the  dear  fatherland,  nothing 
lost,  much  gained,  was  to  rise  up  in  unex 
ampled  honour  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth, — these  thoughts,  and  that  undistinguish- 
able  throng  of  fancies,  and  hopes,  and  desires, 
and  yearnings,  that  filled  the  soul  with  trem 
blings  like  the  heated  air  of  midsummer  days, — 
all  these  kindled  up  such  a  surge  of  joy  as  no 
words  may  describe. 

In  one  hour,  under  the  blow  of  a  single  be 
reavement,  joy  lay  without  a  pulse,  without  a 
gleam,  or  breath.  A  sorrow  came  that  swept 
through  the  land  as  huge  storms  sweep  through 
the  forest  and  field,  rolling  thunder  along  the 
sky,  dishevelling  the  flowers,  daunting  every 
singer  in  thicket  or  forest,  and  pouring  black 
ness  and  darkness  across  the  land  and  upon 
the  mountains.  Did  ever  so  many  hearts,  in 
so  brief  a  time,  touch  two  such  boundless  feel 
ings  ?  It  was  the  uttermost  of  joy ;  it  was 
268 


Abraham  Lincoln 

the  uttermost  of  sorrow  ; — noon  and  midnight 
without  a  space  between  ! 

The  blow  brought  not  a  sharp  pang.  It 
was  so  terrible  that  at  first  it  stunned  sensibility. 
Citizens  were  like  men  awakened  at  midnight 
by  an  earthquake,  and  bewildered  to  find  every 
thing  that  they  were  accustomed  to  trust 
wavering  and  falling.  The  very  earth  was  no 
longer  solid.  The  first  feeling  was  the  least. 
Men  waited  to  get  straight  to  feel.  They 
wandered  in  the  streets  as  if  groping  after 
some  impending  dread,  or  undeveloped  sorrow, 
or  some  one  to  tell  them  what  ailed  them. 
They  met  each  other  as  if  each  would  ask  the 
other,  "  Am  I  awake,  or  do  I  dream  ?  "  There 
was  a  piteous  helplessness.  Strong  men  bowed 
down  and  wept.  Other  and  common  griefs 
belonged  to  some  one  in  chief;  this  belonged 
to  all.  It  was  each  and  every  man's.  Every 
virtuous  household  in  the  land  felt  as  if  its 
first-born  were  gone.  Men  were  bereaved,  and 
walked  for  days  as  if  a  corpse  lay  unburied  in 
their  dwellings.  There  was  nothing  else  to 
think  of.  They  could  speak  of  nothing  but 
that ;  and  yet,  of  that  they  could  speak  only 
falteringly.  All  business  was  laid  aside. 
Pleasure  forgot  to  smile.  The  great  city  for 
nearly  a  week  ceased  to  roar.  The  huge 
269 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Leviathan  lay  down  and  was  still.  Even 
avarice  stood  still,  and  greed  was  strangely 
moved  to  generous  sympathy  and  universal 
sorrow.  Rear  to  his  name  monuments,  found 
charitable  institutions,  and  write  his  name 
above  their  lintels;  but  no  monument  will  ever 
equal  the  universal,  spontaneous,  and  sublime 
sorrow  that  in  a  moment  swept  down  lines 
and  parties,  and  covered  up  animosities,  and 
in  an  hour  brought  a  divided  people  into  unity 
of  grief  and  indivisible  fellowship  of  anguish. 

For  myself,  I  cannot  yet  command  that 
quietness  of  spirit  needed  for  a  just  and  tem 
perate  delineation  of  a  man  whom  goodness 
has  made  great.  Leaving  that,  if  it  please  God, 
to  some  other  occasion,  I  pass  to  some  con 
siderations  aside  from  the  martyr-President's 
character  which  may  be  fit  for  this  hour's 
instruction. 

And  first,  let  us  not  mourn  that  his  depar 
ture  was  so  sudden,  nor  fill  our  imagination 
with  horror  at  its  method.  Men,  long  eluding 
and  evading  sorrow,  when  at  last  they  are 
overtaken  by  it  seem  enchanted  and  seek  to 
make  their  sorrow  sorrowful  to  the  very  utter 
most,  and  to  bring  out  every  drop  of  suffering 
which  they  possibly  can.  This  is  not  Christian, 
though  it  may  be  natural.  When  good  men 
270 


Abraham  Lincoln 

pray  for  deliverance  from  sudden  death,  it  is 
only  that  they  may  not  be  plunged  without 
preparation,  all  disrobed,  into  the  presence  of 
their  Judge.  When  one  is  ready  to  depart 
suddenness  of  death  is  a  blessing.  It  is  a 
painful  sight  to  see  a  tree  overthrown  by  a 
tornado,  wrenched  from  its  foundations,  and 
broken  down  like  a  weed ;  but  it  is  yet  more 
painful  to  see  a  vast  and  venerable  tree  linger 
ing  with  vain  strife  against  decay,  which  age 
and  infirmity  have  marked  for  destruction. 
The  process  by  which  strength  wastes,  and  the 
mind  is  obscured,  and  the  tabernacle  is  taken 
down,  is  humiliating  and  painful;  and  it  is 
good  and  grand  when  a  man  departs  to  his 
rest  from  out  of  the  midst  of  duty,  full-armed 
and  strong,  with  pulse  beating  time.  For 
such  a  one  to  go  suddenly,  if  he  be  prepared 
to  go,  is  but  to  terminate  a  most  noble  life  in 
its  most  noble  manner.  Mark  the  words  of 
the  Master : 

"  Let  your  loins  be  girded  about,  and  your 
lights  burning  ;  and  ye  yourselves  like  unto 
men  that  wait  for  their  lord,  when  he  will 
return  from  the  wedding ;  that  when  he  cometh 
and  knocketh,  they  may  open  unto  him  im 
mediately.  Blessed  are  those  servants  whom 
the  Lord  when  He  cometh  shall  find  watching." 
271 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Not  they  that  go  in  a  stupor,  but  they  that 
go  with  all  their  powers  about  them,  and  wide 
awake,  to  meet  their  Master,  as  to  a  wedding, 
are  blessed.  He  died  watching.  He  died 
with  his  armour  on.  In  the  midst  of  hours  of 
labour,  in  the  very  heart  of  patriotic  consulta 
tions,  just  returned  from  camps  and  counsels, 
he  was  stricken  down.  No  fever  dried  his 
blood.  No  slow  waste  consumed  him.  All 
at  once,  in  full  strength  and  manhood,  with 
his  girdle  tight  about  him,  he  departed ;  and 
walks  with  God. 

Nor  was  the  manner  of  his  death  more 
shocking,  if  we  divest  it  of  the  malignity  of 
the  motives  which  caused  it.  The  mere  in 
strument  itself  is  not  one  that  we  should  shrink 
from  contemplating.  Have  not  thousands  of 
soldiers  fallen  on  the  field  of  battle  by  the 
bullets  of  the  enemy  ?  Is  being  killed  in 
battle  counted  to  be  a  dreadful  mode  of  dying  ? 
It  was  as  if  he  had  died  in  battle.  Do  not  all 
soldiers  that  must  fall  ask  to  depart  in  the 
hour  of  battle  and  of  victory  ?  He  went  m 
the  hour  of  victory. 

There  has  not  been  a  poor  drummer-boy  in 

all  this  war  that  has  fallen  for  whom  the  great 

heart  of  Lincoln  would   not  have  bled ;  there 

has  not  been  one  private  soldier,  without  note 

272 


Abraham  Lincoln 

or  name,  slain  among  thousands  and  hid  in 
the  pit  among  hundreds,  without  even  the 
memorial  of  a  separate  burial,  for  whom  the 
President  would  not  have  wept.  He  was  a 
man  from  the  common  people  who  never  for 
got  his  kind.  And  now  that  he  who  might 
not  bear  the  march,  and  the  toil,  and  the  battle 
with  these  humble  citizens  has  been  called  to 
die  by  the  bullet,  as  they  were,  do  you  not  feel 
that  there  was  a  peculiar  fitness  to  his  nature 
and  life  that  he  should  in  death  be  joined  with 
them  in  a  final  common  experience  to  whom 
he  had  been  joined  in  all  his  sympathies  ? 

For  myself,  when  any  event  is  susceptible 
of  a  higher  and  nobler  garnishing,  I  know  not 
what  that  disposition  is  that  should  seek  to 
drag  it  down  to  the  depths  of  gloom,  and 
write  it  all  over  with  the  scrawls  of  horror  or 
fear.  I  let  the  light  of  nobler  thoughts  fall 
upon  his  departure,  and  bless  God  that  there 
is  some  argument  of  consolation  in  the  matter 
and  manner  of  his  going,  as  there  was  in  the 
matter  and  manner  of  his  staying. 

Then,  again,  this  blow  was  but  the  expiring 
rebellion.  As  a  miniature  gives  all  the  form 
and  features  of  its  subject,  so,  epitomized  in 
this  foul  act,  we  find  the  whole  nature  and 
disposition  of  slavery.  It  begins  in  a  wanton 
2/3 


Lectures  and  Orations 

destruction  of  all  human  rights,  and  in  a  dese 
cration  of  all  the  sanctities  of  heart  and  home ; 
and  it  is  the  universal  enemy  of  mankind,  and 
of  God,  who  made  man.  It  can  be  maintained 
only  at  the  sacrifice  of  every  right  moral  feel 
ing  in  its  abettors  and  upholders.  I  deride 
him  who  points  me  to  any  one  bred  amid 
slavery,  believing  in  it,  and  willingly  practic 
ing  it,  and  tells  me  that  he  is  a  man.  I  shall 
find  saints  in  perdition  sooner  than  I  shall  find 
true  manhood  under  the  influences  of  so  ac 
cursed  a  system  as  this.  It  is  a  two-edged 
sword,  cutting  both  ways,  violently  destroying 
manhood  in  the  oppressed,  and  insidiously 
destroying  manhood  in  the  oppressor.  The 
problem  is  solved,  the  demonstration  is  com 
pleted  in  our  land.  Slavery  wastes  its  victims, 
and  it  destroys  the  masters.  It  kills  public 
morality,  and  the  possibility  of  it.  It  corrupts 
manhood  in  its  very  centre  and  elements. 
Communities  in  which  it  exists  are  not  to  be 
trusted.  They  are  rotten.  Nor  can  you  find 
timber  grown  in  this  accursed  soil  of  iniquity 
that  is  fit  to  build  our 'Ship  of  State,  or  lay  the 
foundation  of  our  households.  The  patriotism 
that  grows  up  under  this  blight,  when  put  to 
proof,  is  selfish  and  brittle  ;  and  he  that  leans 
upon  it  shall  be  pierced.  The  honour  that 
274 


Abraham  Lincoln 

grows  up  in  the  midst  of  slavery  is  not  honour, 
but  a  bastard  quality  that  usurps  the  place  of 
its  better,  only  to  disgrace  the  name.  And,  as 
long  as  there  is  conscience,  or  reason,  or 
Christianity,  the  honour  that  slavery  begets 
will  be  a  byword  and  a  hissing.  The  whole 
moral  nature  of  men  reared  to  familiarity  and 
connivance  with  slavery  is  death-smitten.  The 
needless  rebellion  ;  the  treachery  of  its  leaders 
to  oaths  and  solemn  trusts ;  their  violation  of 
the  commonest  principles  of  fidelity,  sitting  in 
senates,  in  councils,  in  places  of  public  confi 
dence  only  to  betray  and  to  destroy  ;  the  long, 
general,  and  unparallelled  cruelty  to  prisoners, 
without  provocation,  and  utterly  without  ex 
cuse;  the  unreasoning  malignity  and  fierce 
ness, — these  all  mark  the  symptoms  of  that 
disease  of  slavery,  which  is  a  deadly  poison  to 
soul  and  body. 

I  do  not  say  that  there  are  not  single  na 
tures,  here  and  there,  scattered  through  the 
vast  wilderness  which  is  covered  with  this 
poisonous  vine,  who  escaped  the  poison. 
There  are;  but  they  are  not  to  be  found 
among  the  men  that  believe  in  it,  and  that 
have  been  moulded  by  it.  They  are  the  ex 
ceptions.  Slavery  is  itself  barbarity.  That 
nation  which  cherishes  it  is  barbarous ;  and 
275 


Lectures  and  Orations 

no  outside  tinsel  or  glitter  can  redeem  it  from 
the  charge  of  barbarism.  And  it  was  fit  that 
its  expiring  blow  should  be  such  as  to  take 
away  from  men  the  last  forbearance,  the  last 
pity,  and  fire  the  soul  with  an  invincible  de 
termination  that  the  breeding-ground  of  such 
mischiefs  and  monsters  shall  be  utterly  and 
forever  destroyed. 

We  needed  not  that  he  should  put  on  paper 
that  he  believed  in  slavery,  who,  with  treason, 
with  murder,  with  cruelty  infernal,  hovered 
around  that  majestic  man  to  destroy  his  life. 
He  was  himself  but  the  long  sting  with  which 
slavery  struck  at  liberty ;  and  he  carried  the 
poison  that  belonged  to  slavery.  As  long  as 
this  Nation  lasts,  it  will  never  be  forgotten  that 
we  have  had  one  martyred  President — never ! 
Never,  while  time  lasts,  while  heaven  lasts, 
while  hell  rocks  and  groans,  will  it  be  for 
gotten  that  slavery,  by  its  minions,  slew  him, 
and  in  slaying  him  made  manifest  its  whole 
nature  and  tendency. 

But  another  thing  for  us  to  remember  is 
that  this  blow  was  aimed  at  the  life  of  the 
Government  and  of  the  Nation.  Lincoln  was 
slain ;  America  was  meant.  The  man  was 
cast  down ;  the  Government  was  smitten  at. 
It  was  the  President  who  was  killed.  It  was 
276 


Abraham  Lincoln 

national  life,  breathing  freedom  and  meaning 
beneficence,  that  was  sought.  He,  the  man 
of  Illinois,  the  private  man,  divested  of  robes 
and  the  insignia  of  authority,  representing 
nothing  but  his  personal  self,  might  have  been 
hated ;  but  that  would  not  have  called  forth 
the  murderer's  blow.  It  was  because  he  stood 
in  the  place  of  Government,  representing  gov 
ernment  and  a  government  that  represented 
right  and  liberty,  that  he  was  singled  out. 

This,  then,  is  a  crime  against  universal  gov 
ernment.  It  is  not  a  blow  at  the  foundations 
of  our  Government,  more  than  at  the  founda 
tions  of  the  English  government,  of  the  French 
government,  of  every  compacted  and  well- 
organized  government.  It  was  a  crime  against 
mankind.  The  whole  world  will  repudiate  and 
stigmatize  it  as  a  deed  without  a  shade  of  re 
deeming  light.  For  this  was  not  the  op 
pressed,  goaded  to  extremity,  turning  on  his 
oppressor.  Not  even  the  shadow  of  a  cloud 
of  wrong  has  rested  on  the  South,  and  they 
know  it  right  well. 

In  a  council  held  in  the  city  of  Charleston, 
just  preceding  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter,  two 
commissioners  were  appointed  to  go  to  Wash 
ington;  one  on  the  part  of  the  army  from 
Fort  Sumter,  and  one  on  the  part  of  the 
277 


Lectures  and  Orations 

Confederates.  The  lieutenant  that  was  desig 
nated  to  go  for  us  said  it  seemed  to  him 
that  it  would  be  of  little  use  for  him  to  go,  as 
his  opinion  was  immovably  fixed  in  favour  of 
maintaining  the  government  in  whose  service 
he  was  employed.  Then  Governor  Pickens 
took  him  aside,  detaining  for  an  hour  and  a 
half  the  railroad  train  that  was  to  convey  them 
on  their  errand.  He  opened  to  him  the  whole 
plan  and  secrets  of  the  Southern  conspiracy, 
and  said  to  him,  distinctly  and  repeatedly  (for 
it  was  needful,  he  said,  to  lay  aside  disguises), 
that  the  South  had  never  been  wronged,  and 
that  all  their  pretenses  of  grievance  in  the 
matter  of  tariffs,  or  anything  else,  were  invalid. 
"  But,"  said  he,  "  we  must  carry  the  people 
with  us  ;  and  we  allege  these  things,  as  all 
statesmen  do  many  things  they  do  not  believe, 
because  they  are  the  only  instruments  by  which 
the  people  can  be  managed."  He  then  and 
there  declared  that  it  had  simply  come  to  this  : 
that  the  two  sections  of  country  were  so 
antagonistic  in  ideas  and  policies  that  they* 
could  not  live  together ;  that  it  was  fore 
ordained  that,  on  account  of  differences  in 
ideas  and  policies,  Northern  and  Southern 
men  must  keep  apart.  This  is  testimony 
which  was  given  by  one  of  the  leaders  in  the 

278 


Abraham  Lincoln 

Rebellion,  and  which  will  probably,  ere  long, 
be  given  under  hand  and  seal  to  the  public. 
So  the  South  has  never  had  wrongs  visited 
upon  it  except  by  that  which  was  inherent  in 
it. 

This  was  not,  then,  the  avenging  hand  of 
one  goaded  by  tyranny.  It  was  not  a  despot 
turned  on  by  his  victim.  It  was  the  venomous 
hatred  of  liberty  wielded  by  an  avowed  advo 
cate  of  slavery.  And,  though  there  may  have 
been  cases  of  murder  in  which  there  were 
shades  of  palliation,  yet  this  murder  was  with 
out  provocation,  without  temptation,  without 
reason,  sprung  from  the  fury  of  a  heart 
cankered  to  all  that  was  just  and  good,  and 
corrupted  by  all  that  was  wicked  and  foul. 

The  blow,  however,  has  signally  failed. 
The  cause  is  not  stricken  ;  it  is  strengthened. 
This  Nation  has  dissolved — but  in  tears  only. 
It  stands,  four-square,  more  solid,  to-day,  than 
any  pyramid  in  Egypt.  This  people  are 
neither  wasted,  nor  daunted,  nor  disordered. 
Men  hate  slavery  and  love  liberty  with 
stronger  hate  and  love  to-day  than  ever  before. 
The  Government  is  not  weakened,  it  is  made 
stronger.  How  naturally  and  easily  were  the 
ranks  closed  !  Another  stepped  forward,  in 
the  hour  that  the  one  fell,  to  take  his  place 
279 


Lectures  and  Orations 

and  his  mantle ;  and  I  utter  my  trust  that  he 
will  be  found  a  man  true  to  every  instinct  of 
liberty  ;  true  to  the  whole  trust  that  is  reposed 
in  him  ;  vigilant  of  the  Constitution  ;  careful  of 
the  laws ;  wise  for  liberty  in  that  he  himself, 
through  his  life,  has  known  what  it  was  to 
suffer  from  the  stings  of  slavery,  and  to  prize 
liberty  from  bitter  personal  experiences. 

Where  could  the  head  of  government  in  any 
monarchy  be  smitten  down  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin,  and  the  funds  not  quiver  nor  fall  one- 
half  of  one  per  cent.  ?  After  a  long  period  of 
national  disturbance,  after  four  years  of 
drastic  war,  after  tremendous  drafts  on  the 
resources  of  the  country,  in  the  height  and  top 
of  our  burdens,  the  heart  of  this  people  is 
such  that  now,  when  the  head  of  government 
is  stricken  down,  the  public  funds  do  not 
waver,  but  stand  as  the  granite  ribs  in  our 
mountains.  Republican  institutions  have  been 
vindicated  in  this  experience  as  they  never 
were  before  ;  and  the  whole  history  of  the  last 
four  years,  rounded  up  by  this  cruel  stroke', 
seems  now  in  the  providence  of  God  to  have 
been  clothed  with  an  illustration,  with  a 
sympathy,  with  an  aptness,  and  with  a  signif 
icance,  such  as  we  never  could  have  expected 
or  imagined.  God,  I  think,  has  said,  by  the 
280 


Abraham  Lincoln 

voice  of  this  event,  to  all  nations  of  the  earth, 
"  Republican  liberty,  based  upon  true  Chris 
tianity,  is  firm  as  the  foundation  of  the  globe." 
Even  he  who  now  sleeps  has,  by  this  event, 
been  clothed  with  new  influence.  Dead,  he 
speaks  to  men  who  now  willingly  hear  what 
before  they  refused  to  listen  to.  Now,  his 
simple  and  weighty  words  will  be  gathered 
like  those  of  Washington,  and  your  children 
and  your  children's  children  shall  be  taught  to 
ponder  the  simplicity  and  deep  wisdom  of 
utterances  which,  in  their  time,  passed,  in  the 
party  heat,  as  idle  words.  Men  will  receive  a 
new  impulse  of  patriotism  for  his  sake,  and 
will  guard  with  zeal  the  whole  country  which 
he  loved  so  well ;  I  swear  you,  on  the  altar  of 
his  memory,  to  be  more  faithful  to  the  coun 
try  for  which  he  has  perished.  Men  will,  as 
they  follow  his  hearse,  swear  a  new  hatred  to 
that  slavery  against  which  he  warred,  and 
which  in  vanquishing  him  has  made  him  a 
martyr  and  a  conqueror  ;  I  swear  you,  by  the 
memory  of  this  martyr,  to  hate  slavery  with 
an  unappeasable  hatred.  Men  will  admire  and 
imitate  his  unmoved  firmness,  his  inflexible 
conscience  for  the  right,  and  yet  his  gentle 
ness,  as  tender  as  a  woman's,  his  moderation  of 
spirit,  which  not  all  the  heat  of  party  could  in- 
281 


Lectures  and  Orations 

flame,  nor  all  the  jars  and  disturbances  of  this 
country  shake  out  of  its  place ;  I  swear  you  to 
an  emulation  of  his  justice,  his  moderation  and 
his  mercy. 

You  I  can  comfort ;  but  how  can  I  speak  to 
that  twilight  million  to  whom  his  name  was  as 
the  name  of  an  angel  of  God  ?  There  will  be 
wailing  in  places  which  no  ministers  shall  be 
able  to  reach.  When,  in  hovel  and  in  cot,  in 
wood  and  in  wilderness,  in  the  field  through 
out  the  South,  the  dusky  children,  who  looked 
upon  him  as  that  Moses  whom  God  sent  before 
them  to  lead  them  out  of  the  land  of  bondage, 
learn  that  he  has  fallen,  who  shall  comfort 
them?  Oh,  Thou  Shepherd  of  Israel,  that 
didst  comfort  Thy  people  of  old,  to  Thy  care 
we  commit  the  helpless,  the  long-wronged,  and 
grieved ! 

And  now  the  martyr  is  moving  in  triumphal 
march,  mightier  than  when  alive.1  The  Nation 
rises  up  at  every  stage  of  his  coming.  Cities 
and  States  are  his  pallbearers,  and  the  cannon 
beats  the  hours  with  solemn  progression. 
Dead — dead — dead — he  yet  speaketh  !  Is 
Washington  dead?  Is  Hampden  dead?  Is 

1  The   funeral  journey,   conveying   Lincoln's  body  from 
Washington    to    Illinois,    was    fourteen    days    in    progress. 
Assassinated  on  April  I4th,  he  was  buried  on  May  4,  1865 
282 


Abraham  Lincoln 

David  dead  ?  Is  any  man  dead  that  ever  was 
fit  to  live?  Disenthralled  of  flesh,  and  risen 
to  the  unobstructed  sphere  where  passion 
never  comes,  he  begins  his  illimitable  work. 
His  life  now  is  grafted  upon  the  Infinite,  and 
will  be  fruitful  as  no  earthly  life  can  be.  Pass 
on,  thou  that  hast  overcome!  Your  sorrows, 
O  people,  are  his  peace !  Your  bells,  and 
bands,  and  muffled  drums  sound  triumph  in 
his  ear.  Wail  and  weep  here ;  God  makes  it 
echo  joy  and  triumph  there.  Pass  on,  thou 
victor ! 

Four  years  ago,  O  Illinois,  we  took  from 
your  midst  an  untried  man,  and  from  among 
the  people;  we  return  him  to  you  a  mighty 
conqueror.  Not  thine  any  more,  but  the 
Nation's  ;  not  ours,  but  the  world's.  Give  him 
place,  ye  prairies  !  In  the  midst  of  this  great 
Continent  his  dust  shall  rest,  a  sacred  treasure 
to  myriads  who  shall  make  pilgrimage  to  that 
shrine  to  kindle  anew  their  zeal  and  patriotism. 
Ye  winds,  that  move  over  the  mighty  places 
of  the  West,  chant  his  requiem  !  Ye  people, 
behold  a  martyr,  whose  blood,  as  so  many 
articulate  words,  pleads  for  fidelity,  for  law, 
for  liberty ! 


283 


Appendix 


PATRIOTISM  ABOVE  PARTY 

[!N  1884,  the  public  were  intent  upon  two  es 
pecial  reforms, — one,  of  the  inequalities  and  inef 
ficiencies  of  the  Tariff,  by  which  the  Republican 
party  in  its  long  lease  of  power  was  thought  to 
have  been  corrupted ;  the  other,  of  the  methods  of 
appointment  to  positions  in  the  Civil  Service, 
wherein  naturally  the  party  in  power  were  held  to 
be  the  offenders  in  the  wide-spread  official  demor 
alization  of  that  time.  Many  Republicans  were 
urgent  for  these  reforms,  and  of  course  their 
political  opponents,  the  Democrats,  were  vociferous 
for  them. 

Thus,  both  parties  became  in  their  platforms 
committed  to  the  same  lines  of  promised  better 
ment,  and  the  probability  or  improbability  of 
reform  was  to  be  looked  for  in  their  Presidential 
candidates.  The  Republican  candidate  was  James 
G.  Elaine;  the  Democratic  candidate,  Grover 
Cleveland.  Mr.  Elaine's  public  career  did  not 
satisfy  the  reforming  element  of  his  own  party, 
while  Mr.  Cleveland's  course  commended  him  to 
284 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

the  Democrats  (except  of  the  New  York  Tam 
many  type)  and  to  many  of  the  Republicans,  who 
supported — and  elected  him. 

Among  the  Independent  Republicans  was  Mr. 
Beecher,  who  wrote  and  spoke  for  Cleveland,  and, 
when  charged  with  treason  to  the  Republican 
party,  made  the  following  campaign  speech  in 
Brooklyn,  in  October,  1884.  The  newspaper 
report,  with  its  interpolations  of  what  the  audience 
thought  about  it,  is  allowed  to  stand.  It  is  an 
example  of  Mr.  Beecher 's  aptitude  in  popular 
appeal.] 

I  confess,  at  the  risk  of  the  imputation  of  some 
immodesty,  that  my  appearance  here  to-night  to 
antagonize  the  organized  action  of  the  Republican 
party,  is  itself  a  fact  of  the  most  significant  char 
acter.  Before  many  of  you  were  born  I  was 
rocking  the  cradle  of  the  Republican  party.  [Ap 
plause.]  I  fought  its  early  battles  when  it  was  in 
an  apparently  hopeless  minority.  I  advocated  its 
cause,  speaking  day  and  night,  at  the  risk  of  my 
health  and  of  my  life  itself  [applause]  when 
Fremont  was  our  first  notable  candidate.  When 
Mr.  Lincoln  [cheers']  became  our  candidate  I  gave 
all  I  had  of  time,  strength,  influence,  and  persua 
sion,  and  when  his  election  was  ascertained  and 
efforts  were  made  to  intimidate  the  North  and 
to  prevent  his  being  chaired,  I  went  up  and  down 
through  this  country  stiffening  the  backs  of  willow- 

285 


Appendix 

backed  patriots.  [Applause  and  laughter.]  I 
faced  mobs,  I  preached  day  and  night  in  my  own 
church,  to  hold  the  North  up  to  its  own  rights  and 
interests.  When  the  war  broke  out  I  sent  to  it  the 
only  boy  I  had  big  enough  to  hold  a  musket 
[applause],  and  it  greatly  grieved  my  oldest  child, 
a  daughter,  that  she  was  not  a  boy.  [Laughter  and 
applause,]  As  the  war  went  on  my  contribution 
could  not  be  much,  but  such  as  it  was  I  gave  it — I 
gave  it  as  a  mother  gives  her  breast  to  her  child. 
[Renewed  applause.] 

And  when,  seeking  some  rest  from  exhausting 
cares  and  labours,  I  went  abroad,  I  did  not  suffer 
the  grass  to  grow  under  my  feet,  but  in  the  face  of 
royalty  and  aristocracy  and  of  great  wealth  in 
England  I  upheld  the  justice  and  the  rectitude  of 
the  cause  for  which  we  were  all  striving.  [Great 
applause]  And  at  every  canvass  from  that  day 
to  this  I  have  not  held  back  health,  strength  or 
influence.  Why,  then,  is  it  that  I  am  now  opposed 
to  the  organized  movement  of  the  Republican 
party?  That  is  a  significant  question.  For,  gen 
tlemen,  I  have  never  fed  on  official  pap.  [Laughter 
and  applause.]  I  have  never  asked  a  favour  for 
myself,  nor  could  one  be  given  me.  I  would  not 
take  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  even 
if  I  could  get  it,  and  I  fear  that  I  am  too  good  a 
man  to  get  it.  [Great  laughter.]  Pardon  me 
some  little  vanity  when  I  say  that  I  regard  the 
platform  of  Plymouth  Church  as  unspeakably 
286 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

higher  than  the  Presidency  of  these  United  States — 
for  me,  not  for  others.  \Renewed  laughter  and 
applause. "\ 

I  am  now  opposing  the  party  whose  cradle  I 
rocked,  because  I  do  not  mean  to  be  a  pall-bearer 
to  carry  the  coffin  of  that  party  to  the  grave. 
[Applause. ]  Gentlemen,  the  Republican  party  is 
on  its  way  to  destruction,  unless  you  turn  the 
switch  and  run  it  on  a  side  track.  [Laughter .] 
And  by  all  my  love  of  my  country — and  it  is  next 
to  my  love  of  my  God — by  all  my  pride  in  the 
past — I  feel  bound  to  do  whatever  God  will  inspire 
me  to  do  to  stop  the  ruinous  progress  of  the  Re 
publican  party  and  to  save  it.  [Applause."] 

It  behooves  you,  therefore,  not  to  make  mere 
amusement  of  the  work  of  this  evening.  I  speak  to 
you  as  to  a  jury.  The  case  before  you  is  not  that 
of  some  trembling  culprit,  or  some  wronged  citizen 
seeking  redress.  It  is  your  whole  country  that  is 
before  you  to-night,  whose  cause  I  am  to  plead — to 
plead  as  if  life  or  death  hung  on  the  issues.  [Ap 
plause. ]  I  am  in  dead  earnest.  It  is  very  natural 
that  men  working  through  a  political  party  should 
by  and  by  come  to  look  upon  all  events  in  the  com 
munity  in  their  relation  to  party  welfare  and  party 
success.  But  I,  who  have  had  nothing  to  do  with 
parties,  except  as  moral  instruments,  naturally  look 
upon  their  movements  and  purposes  from  the  moral 
standpoint.  What  are  they  attempting  to  do  for 
this  great  people  ?  What  does  their  success  mean  ? 

287 


Appendix 

How  does  it  stand  alongside  the  intelligence,  the 
morality,  the  true  religion  of  this  people,  alongside 
that  patriotism  which  rests  its  feet  on  morality,  but 
whose  head  stands  in  the  spirituality  which  con 
nects  man  with  God?  [Great  applause.']  I 
study  public  affairs  from  the  moral  and  religious 
standpoint,  and  that  which  is  offensive  to  God  may 
I  never  live  to  see  the  day  when  it  may  be  accept 
able  to  me  and  to  my  countrymen.  [Renewed 
applause.  ] 

Looking  forward,  as  the  pilot  looks,  what  are  our 
perils?  The  war  is  over.  The  great  questions 
that  agitated  the  community  are  past.  You  can't 
bring  them  back.  There  are,  however,  two  great 
dangers  that  betide  our  Government.  One  is  the 
danger  that  comes  from  the  corrupt  use  of  wealth  ; 
the  other,  that  which  comes  from  the  corruption  of 
too-long-held  power.  [Great  applause. ]  It  is  a 
common  proverb,  "  An  honest  man  can  bear 
watching — a  dishonest  man  needs  it."  [Laughter.'} 
This  is  just  as  true  of  politics  as  of  common  pro 
cedure.  This  is  the  age  of  enterprise,  of  produc 
tion,  of  commerce — of  money.  All  the  world  is  a 
great  buzzing  factory,  and  the  making  of  money 
stands,  of  all  things,  the  most  conspicuous  to  the 
visual  sense.  Russia,  Austria  and  France  failed  in 
their  greatest  recent  wars  and  enterprises  because 
those  countries  were  honeycombed  with  official 
corruption.  We  are  in  danger  from  the  same  cause. 
The  heavens  rain  gold  on  us ;  every  drop  of  our 
288 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

summer  showers  is  worth  more  than  a  dollar  to  us. 
The  annual  increase  of  wages  among  the  labouring 
people  is  over  $700,000,000,  and  they  are  taxed 
,$1,200,000  a  year  !  Yet  we  have  an  organization 
calling  itself  a  "  protection  to  the  working  man  !  " 
It  is  a  great  scheme  of  taxation  that  rolls  $4,000,000,- 
ooo  a  year  into  the  reservoirs  at  Washington,  and 
$100,000,000  stagnates  there  uselessly,  besides  ex 
haling  an  atmosphere  of  corruption.  \Applause, .] 

It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  some  of  this  golden 
water  in  the  mill-dam  of  Washington  were  not  em 
ployed  to  grind  out  votes  to-day  for  the  "  old  Re 
publican  party."  It  is!  One  of  the  greatest 
dangers  of  our  day  is  bribery.  Voters  are  bribed. 
Thousands  of  men  carry  their  hands  open  for  their 
dollar  or  their  two  dollars,  and  put  their  vote  in  for 
that  price  and  then  wipe  their  smudged  faces  and 
go  home  and  say  their  regular  prayers.  [Laughter.] 
Men  who  wish  to  go  to  the  Legislature  know  how 
it  is.  "  Money  makes  the  mare  go" — and  the 
legislator!  [Laughter .]  It  is  scarcely  possible 
for  a  man  to  go  to  the  United  States  Senate  unless 
he  or  his  friends  have  the  quid  pro  quo.  Now  and 
then  there  is  a  Sumner,  but  they  don't  grow  on 
every  bush.  [Laughter .]  The  Senators  from 
Kansas,  from  Nevada,  from  California,  are  not 
suffered  to  go  to  Washington  at  their  own  expenses; 
or,  if  at  their  own  expenses,  they  take  care  of  those 
that  send  them  there.  [Laughter .~\  Our  very 
courts  often  receive  upon  their  benches  judges 
289 


Appendix 

placed  there  by  the  influence  of  gain — not  for 
themselves,  for  I  believe  them  as  a  body  to  be  just 
men,  but  their  friends  use  inducements  by  which 
they  are  sent  to  the  bench. 

To-day  it  is  sought  to  buy  a  candidate  into  the 
Presidential  chair  with  money.  I  have  been  cred 
ibly  informed  that  between  one  and  two  million 
dollars  have  been  rolled  west  to  gild  the  State  of 
Ohio,  and  a  like  stream  is  pouring  into  Indiana. 
My  early  life  was  spent  in  Indiana,  my  elder  chil 
dren  were  born  there,  and,  in  my  heart,  a  Hoosier 
is,  as  it  were,  a  brother  to  me,  and  anything  that 
is  good  for  Indiana  pleases  me.  When,  therefore, 
in  the  last  conflict  of  1880  word  came  that  Dorsey 
had  succeeded  in  carrying  that  State  for  the  Re 
publican  party,  I  felt  so  grateful  that  I  told  Mr. 
Murphy  that  I  would  be  glad  to  go  to  a  public  din 
ner  in  honour  of  Mr.  Dorsey,  and  I  went — innocent 
as  I  was!  [Great  laughter.']  I  think  that  confi 
dence  in  my  fellow  men  and  generosity  have  been 
the  occasion  of  more  of  my  trips  and  downfalls 
than  any  vices  or  any  other  offenses.  [^Renewed 
laughter  and  applause.] 

When  I  see  Mr.  Dudley  abandoning  his  duties 
in  Washington  and  distributing  money  with  an  uh- 
shamed  hand — willing  to  acknowledge  that  he  is 
doing  it — I  say  that  the  thing  is  coming  very 
nearly  home  to  me,  and  that  one  great  danger  in 
the  near  future  is  that  we  shall  have  a  Government 
that  will  be  honeycombed  with  pecuniary  corrup- 
290 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

tion.  What  a  rush  there  is  for  gold  !  How  im 
patient  are  men  become  of  homely  industry — how 
eager  for  unearned  properties — how  eager  for  spec 
ulation,  which  is,  in  the  main,  an  attempt  to  cheat 
the  devil.  [Laughter.]  Who  can  count  the  repu 
table  thieves  that  have  stolen  trust  funds  and  run 
off  with  bonds  committed  to  their  custody — presi 
dents,  cashiers,  directors,  clerks,  agents ;  this  one 
a  leading  deacon,  that  one  a  Sunday-school  super 
intendent  ;  all  of  them  Christians  !  [Great  laugh 
ter.]  Oh,  if  Christ  were  here,  would  He  not  again 
begin  to  drive  out  from  the  temple  of  our  liberty 
the  money-changers  and  those  who  sold  doves  and 
oxen  and  asses — and  men  ! 

Now,  under  such  circumstances,  I  ask  you, 
which  man  will  be  the  most  likely  to  meet  and  re 
sist  this  cankerous  tendency — Mr.  Elaine  or  Mr. 
Cleveland?  [Tremendous  enthusiasm  and  cheers 
for  Cleveland. ]  What  would  Mr.  Elaine  do  for 
the  reform  ?  He  would  not  allow  Mr.  Dudley  to 
forsake  the  Pension  Bureau  in  order  to  teach  the 
people  to  worship  the  golden  calf. — Would  he? 
[Laughter.]  He  would  not  allow  Congress  to  do 
nate  lands  to  railroads Would  he?  [Renewed 

laughter]  He  would  seize  the  Pacific  Railroads 
by  the  throat  and  help  Thurman  and  Edmunds  to 
drag  them  to  settlement. — Wouldn't  he  ?  [Great 
laughter.] 

What  is  the  tone  of  moral  sense  of  people  who, 
when  a  body  of  men  are  anxious  to  redeem  the 
291 


Appendix 

Government  from  corruption,  or  to  prevent  it,  call 
them  dudes  and  Pharisees  ? — as  if  to  seek  to  stem 
the  tide  of  corruption  was  to  say,  "I  am  holier 
than  thou ;  I  am  a  Pharisee."  Who  was  the 
Pharisee  ?  In  the  earlier  day  he  was  the  Puritan 
of  the  Jews.  The  Pharisees  were  the  men  that  in 
the  Babylonish  captivity  undertook  to  keep  their 
own  people  from  idolatry,  and  to  hold  them  to  the 
worship  of  Jehovah.  They  were  the  Puritans  of 
the  Orient,  as  the  English  were  the  Puritans  of  the 
Occident.  It  was  the  Puritan  that  gave  liberty  to 
old  England,  and  it  was  the  Puritan  that  brought 
liberty  to  New  England  and  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  institutions  on  which  we  stand,  So  the  Pharisees 
were  the  Puritans,  and  in  that  sense  I  am  a  Pharisee, 
thank  God  !  [Tremendous  applause. ~\  Whether 
I  am  a  dude,  I  don't  know.  [Uproarious  laughter 
and  applause^  But  if  the  sluices  are  to  be  kept 
open,  and  jobbery  permitted  to  run  riot,  no  more 
fitting  selection  could  be  made  for  the  Presidency 
than  James  G.  Blaine.  [Applause."] 

I  am  a  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Blaine.  [Laugh 
ter.]  For  twelve  years  I  have  watched  him,  anx 
ious  that  he  should  be  the  right  man — that  he  js 
not.  For  more  than  ten  years  I  have  been  afraid 
of  him.  I  have  been  challenged  by  a  Brooklyn 
paper  to  give  an  account  of  an  interview  I  had  with 
Mr.  Blaine  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  I  have  only 
this  to  say  about  it.  I  don't  think  Mr.  Joy  exists 
any  longer  [laughter]  as  a  respondent.  If  he  does, 
292 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

tliere  is  something  more  to  be  said.  But  after  I 
spoke  at  the  Cooper  Union  in  advocacy  of  Mr. 
Garfield's  election,  nearly  four  years  ago  [cheer  s]> 
I  received  a  request  from  Mr.  Elaine  to  meet  him 
at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  Taking  my  eldest  son 
with  me,  I  went  over.  Mr.  Elaine  asked  me  if  I 
had  seen  the  newspaper  called  Truth.  I  said, 
"No."  "Let  me  read  it  to  you,"  said  he.  He 
read  me,  I  should  think,  two  columns.  I  replied, 
"  That  paper  has  one-third  truth  and  two-thirds 
lies."  [Laughter.]  "  Now,"  said  I,  "  I  will  tell 
you  just  what  the  truth  was."  I  then  narrated  to 
him  my  interview  with  Mr.  Joy.  I  was  struck, 
after  narrating  it,  that  he  didn't  fly  into  anger — 
that  he  didn't  peremptorily  and  with  the  indignation 
of  an  honest  man  deny  it.  Without  quoting  his 
words,  this  was  their  substance  :  "  Why,  this  can't 
be.  I  don't  remember  that  I  ever  had  any  trans 
actions  in  that  direction.  I  don't  think  that  I  had 
any  bonds  or  anything  of  that  kind  at  that  time. 
Why,  it  is  not  probable ;  Mr.  Joy — he  couldn't  have 
said  any  such  thing  as  that." 

By  that  time  I  was  touched  a  little.  I  said  to 
him  :  "  Mr.  Elaine,  where  then  did  I  get  the  story  ? 
Did  I  make  it  up,  or  did  Mr.  Joy  tell  it  to  me?" 
"Oh,"  he  said,  "no,  of  course,  but  then  Mr.  Joy 
is  my  best  friend.  He  introduced  my  name  into 
the  convention  at  Chicago,  and  advocated  my 
nomination."  "Yes,  sir,"  said  I,  "and  that  is 
the  most  damning  circumstance  about  it.  [Great 
293 


Appendix 

applause. ,]  For,  sir,  when  they  found  that  you 
were  the  man  that  these  monopolists  and  consoli 
dated  railroads  wanted,  they  attempted  to  put  you 
where  you  could  do  the  most  good."  [Laughter 
and  applause]  After  some  further  discussion — 
for  both  of  us  were  polite  on  the  outside  and  ex 
tremely  indignant  on  the  inside — we  parted.  This 
is  the  interview  that  the  Brooklyn  Times  challenged 
me,  once  and  again,  to  relate.  May  that  paper 
make  the  most  of  it.  [Great  applause. ~\ 

I  met  Mr.  Elaine  once  after  that,  and  had  some 
conversation  with  him.  Going  out  from  the  Adams 
Express  office  and  walking  down  the  street,  he  said  : 
"  What  do  you  think  of  the  Cabinet  that  Garfield 
is  to  form?"  My  reply  was,  "Well,  I  don't 
meddle  with  such  things  much.  The  only  thing  I 
know  is  who  ought  to  be  Secretary  of  State." 
"Who?"  said  he.  Said  I,  "  James  G.  Elaine." 
"Do  you  think  so?  I  wish  you  would  write  that 
to  Mr.  Garfield."  I  replied  that  I  did  not  like  to 
meddle  with  such  matters,  but  I  would  think  it 
over.  I  did  not  write. 

You  may  ask  me  how  I  should  have  made  such 
a  suggestion  to  Mr.  Elaine,  with  the  opinion  that  I 
held  of  him.  I  reasoned  in  this  way  :  I  knew  Mr. 
Garfield  was  under  great  obligations  to  Mr.  Elaine, 
and  that  beyond  all  question  he  would  have  the 
proffer  of  some  chair  in  the  Cabinet.  I  thought : 
It  won't  do  for  him  to  go  to  the  Interior  Department ; 
there  are  too  many  temptations.  It  will  certainly 
294 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

never  do  for  him  to  be  put  in  the  Treasury. 
[Laughter. .]  Although  he  is  a  good  letter-writer 
he  would  not  accept  the  Post-Office.  In  my  sim 
plicity  I  thought  that  the  next  thing  to  extradition 
and  emigration  would  be  to  put  him  in  the  chair  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.  So  simple  was  I !  [Laugh 
ter.'}  And  therefore  I  thought,  as  he  must  go  into 
the  Cabinet,  that  was  the  place  where  he  could  do 
the  least  harm. 

Now,  the  other  great  danger  to  which  our  Govern 
ment  is  exposed  is  to  be  found  in  organizing  all  the 
officers  of  the  Government  and  drilling  them  into  a 
compact  body,  not  for  the  people,  but  for  the  party 
that  happens  to  be  in  the  ascendency.  There  are 
between  80,000  and  100,000  officers  under  the  Fed 
eral  Government.  In  the  year  1900  there  will  be 
multitudes  more.  To  meet  this  danger,  Civil  Service 
Reform  has  been  instituted.  You  will  remember  it 
began  with  a  few,  and  was  hardly  thought  worthy 
of  notice.  When  it  was  urged,  politicians  began 
to  resist  it.  Little  by  little,  the  sober  sense  of  the 
common  people  saw  its  necessity  and  it  received  a 
tentative  organization.  Finally  it  became  a  system, 
with  its  laws. 

Rotation  in  office  is  bad  for  the  Government,  be 
cause  the  change  of  minor  officers  with  every  change 
of  administration  leaves  the  Government  continually 
in  the  condition  of  being  served  by  raw  men.  No 
mercantile  establishment,  no  foundry  or  ship 
building  concern  would  turn  off  its  expert  labourers 
295 


Appendix 

and  take  on  green  hands,  but  that  is  what  our 
Government  has  been  doing  every  time  the  party 
has  changed,  thus  bringing  into  the  service  inex 
perienced  and  unfit  men.  It  is  bad  also  because  it 
holds  up  not  patriotism  as  the  motive  of  activity, 
but  this  bribe  of  an  office.  These  are  dangerous  to 
the  Government,  corrupting  to  the  people,  and  they 
forebode  by  and  by  an  oligarchy  that  can  determine 
almost  every  election  by  the  people.  \_Applause.] 

Has  Mr.  Elaine  ever  done  anything  for  Civil 
Service  Reform  ?  From  under  his  roof,  where 
dwells  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  acute  writers  in 
the  great  school  of  women  writers,1  there  issued  the 
most  caustic  and  ridiculing  series  of  letters  on  the 
whole  matter  of  reform  and  reformers  in  this  respect. 
If  I  mistake  not,  it  was  composed  under  his  roof,  on 
his  tables,  and  under  his  eye,  and — unrebuked. 
Was  there  ever  any  testimony  from  him  except  this 
— a  mild  praise  of  Garfield  as  believing  in  Civil 
Service  Reform  and  an  acceptance  of  the  platform 
of  the  Republican  party  that  indorsed  it  ?  Is  that 
the  man  to  enforce  Civil  Service  Reform  ? 

Now,  on  the  other  hand,  is  there  one  of  these 
elements  of  danger  which  we  have  to  fear  at  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Cleveland  ?  [Cheers  and  applause  J\ 
He  is  a  lawyer  of  repute,  known  for  the  sound  judg 
ment  and  the  great  industry  which  he  brings  to  his 
cases.  He  began  public  life  as  a  sheriff.  He  has 

1  "  Gail  Hamilton  "  was  the  nom  de  plume  of  Mary 
Abigail  Dodge. 

296 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

been  the  subject  of  ridicule  in  that  matter,  and 
from  quarters  where  I  did  not  expect  it,  I  believe 
last  night — perhaps  the  night  before — in  this  place. 
It  has  been  laughed  at  that  he  charged  for  860  days 
in  a  year  of  service,  as  if  there  were  860  days, 
and  yet  the  fools  that  are  laughing  do  not  know 
that  more  than  half  the  work  of  the  sheriff  is  done 
by  deputies,  and  every  deputy's  service  is  counted 
by  the  day.  This  is  understood  by  legislatures  and 
by  courts.  The  very  man  in  that  county  who  is 
now  up  for  Congress  returned  1,100  days'  service 
in  the  365,  and  doubtless  very  properly,  too.  He 
is  a  Republican  candidate.  They  laugh  because 
Sheriff  Cleveland  charged  twenty-five  cents  for 
newspapers.  Mr.  Elaine  would  have  charged  $200. 
But  this  man  Cleveland  has  no  idea  of  dishonesty. 
He  does  not  know  what  his  privileges  were  !  You 
will  bear  in  mind  that  when  Marcy  was  Governor 
of  New  York  and  had  to  travel  the  State,  he 
charged,  I  think,  three  shillings  or  fifty  cents  for 
mending  his  pantaloons.  He  that  is  faithful  in 
little  will  also  be  faithful  in  great  things.  [Laugh- 

/„•.] 

Now,  I  want  a  man  that  won't  take  one  single, 
solitary  penny  but  simply  what  belongs  to  him.  In 
these  buncombe  days,  when  men  don't  count  a  dol 
lar  worth  anything,  it  is  good  to  find  the  original 
simplicity  of  the  old-fashioned  men  who  served  the 
public.  But  Judge  Davis  sneered  at  Cleveland  as  a 
sheriff  because  he  himself  personally  superintended 
297 


Appendix 

the  execution  of  one  whom  the  law  had  doomed 
to  death.  He — a  judge — an  able  judge — a  judge 
whose  memory  will  go  down  to  posterity  as  having 
convicted  that  arch  criminal  Tweed  [applau se],  so 
far  forgot  himself  as  to  say  that  Mr.  Tanner  was  a 
good  candidate  for  sheriff,  and  I  say  "  Amen"  to 
that.  I  shall  vote  for  him.  [Applause.]  But  he 
also  said — this  is  the  offensive  part — that  he  would 
not  vote  for  him  if  he  thought  that  in  executing  the 
law  he  would  personally  superintend  the  execution 
of  a  culprit.  A  judge  from  the  bench  saying  to 
the  young  men  who  gathered  here  that  a  law  and 
statute  of  the  commonwealth  was  honoured  in  hav 
ing  a  sworn  officer  refuse  to  execute  it !  [  Cries  of 
"  Shame  !  shame  /  "  and  hisses] 

Now,  Judge  Davis  would  never  have  said  that 
deliberately.  It  is  one  of  those  little  excursions 
that  public  speakers  sometimes  make.  [Laughter] 
From  the  Shrievalty  Mr.  Cleveland  was  exalted  to 
the  Mayoralty — if  it  be  an  exaltation,  and  in  some 
cities  it  is,  but  we  will  wait  until  after  the  election 
in  New  York  and  see.  [Laughter]  As  such  he 
won  a  good  repute  and  was  honoured  by  the  whole 
bulk  of  the  citizens  of  Buffalo.  Then,  as  a  rebuke 
to  the  managers  of  the  Republican  party,  he  was 
exalted  to  the  position  of  Governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York.  [Applause]  Nor  has  there  been  any 
sort  of  chance  to  make  any  effectual  criticism  on  his 
administration  since  he  has  been  Governor  of  this 
imperial  State.  [Applause]  In  this  position, 
298 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

simple  as  a  child,  sincere  as  a  saint  [applausi\,  with 
broad  common  sense  and  very  uncommon  honesty 
\applaus e\t  a  true  and  enthusiastic  member  of  the 
Democratic  party  \applause\,  but  putting  the 
whole  State  and  the  whole  country  higher  than  the 
party,  he  has  been  steadily  and  patiently  perform 
ing  the  duties  of  his  office,  while  Mr.  Elaine  has 
been  imitating  the  pot-house  politicians  in  the  ward 
elections.  As  they  go  from  house  to  house  and 
grog-shop  to  grog-shop,  so  Elaine  goes  from  town 
to  town,  hat  in  hand,  a  national  mendicant 
soliciting  votes,  as  medicants  solicit  doles  of 
charity ;  dishonouring  the  example  of  all  Presiden 
tial  candidates  we  have  ever  had  up  to  this  hour, 
except  the  solitary  instance  of  Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid's 
great  predecessor,  Horace  Greeley  !  Elaine  has  ex 
hibited  his  person  throughout  New  York  State  and 
throughout  Ohio,  throughout  Indiana  and  Michigan, 
and  is  coming  back  soon  to  upset  everything  in 
Brooklyn  and  New  York.  [Laughter.']  During 
this  extraordinary  and  not  honourable  exodus  of 
Elaine,  Grover  Cleveland  remained  at  home  stead 
fast  to  duty.  He  attended  to  the  duties  of  his  office 
and  let  the  country  employ  its  own  best  judgment 
as  to  whether  he  should  go  higher.  [Applause. ~\ 

One  reason  why  Mr.  Cleveland  is  not  acceptable 
to  some  of  his  own  party  is  that  while  he  is  an 
honest  Democrat  he  is  not  a  partisan,  but  a  patriot. 
[Applause.]  Let  me  attend  to  some  of  the  objec 
tions.  If  our  country  needs  a  man  of  sterling 
299 


Appendix 

honesty  and  integrity  on  account  of  the  temptations 
of  money,  Cleveland  is  the  man  !  \_Applau seJ\  If 
our  Government  is  to  be  free  from  the  dangers  of  a 
complex  financial  combination  that  can  determine 
for  any  party  in  power  very  nearly  the  whole  future, 
Cleveland  is  the  man.  [Great  applause.^  Do 
you  know  that  when  he  came  into  the  Governor's 
chair  he  never  turned  out  a  man  that  his  predecessor 
Cornell  had  put  in  power  but  one  ?  Cornell  had 
turned  out  a  one-armed  soldier  as  a  messenger  and 
put  in  a  stalwart  working-man.  Cleveland  put  out 
the  stalwart  working-man  and  put  back  the  one- 
armed  soldier.  \Applause. ~\  One-half  of  his  staff 
to-day  are  Republicans.  That's  the  man  for 
Washington  !  \_Applau se.~\ 

But  this  is  almost  the  one  argument  I  hear  on 
every  hand — "  I  don't  like  Elaine.  He  was  not 
my  choice,  but  then,  he  is  the  regular  nominee  of 
our  party."  Well,  I  should  like  to  know  what 
sort  of  a  party  man  you  are  that  can  stand  by  and 
see  your  party  degraded  and  damaged,  but  stick  to 
it  and  not  put  forward  one  single,  solitary  effort  to 
save  it.  \Applause. ~\  And  yet  the  party  is  not 
like  the  man  that  fell  among  the  thieves — though 
the  thieves  are  after  it.  \Laughter .~\  Here  are 
the  men  who  see  the  danger.  And  the  priest  saw 
that  the  poor  fellow  wasn't  a  priest  and  he  went 
past ;  and  the  Levite  (as  it  has  been  said)  saw  that 
he  had  been  robbed  already  and  he  went  past. 
\_Great  laughter. ~\  But  if  you  are  a  faithful  Re- 
300 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

publican,  the  command  is  as  if  it  came  from  the 
lips  of  God,  "See  that  the  party  suffers  no  detri 
ment,"  and  no  greater  detriment  could  come  than 
an  unworthy  head  given  to  it. 

Why,  according  to  your  logic,  you  must  vote  for 
whomsoever  the  convention  gives  you.  If  the  con 
vention  had  given  you  Tweed,  every  mother's  son 
of  you  would  have  had  to  drop  your  tail  between 
your  legs  and  vote  for  Tweed.  The  logic  of  this 
is  infamous,  and  the  man  who  urges  such  an  excuse 
as  that,  if  he  has  a  decent  wife,  ought  not  to  go 
home  for  forty-eight  hours,  until  he  had  bathed  and 
cleansed  himself.  Suppose  you  were  the  trustee  of 
an  academy  or  school  and  you  knew  that  the  man 
whom  the  trustees  had  elected  was  utterly  untrust 
worthy,  you  would  say,  "  I  belong  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  and  I  must  go  as  they  go,  and  I  will  send 
my  boy  to  the  school  whatever  this  man  may  be." 
You  would  not  do  it  anywhere  else,  I  tell  you,  ex 
cept  where  the  murrain  of  a  blighted  politics  had 
fallen  upon  you. 

Well,  they  say,  "  We  don't  wish  to  leave  the 
party."  We  don't  wish  to  have  you.  We  want 
you  to  stay  in  it  and  become  Independent  Repub 
licans.  \_Applaus e.~\  Who  are  Independent  Re 
publicans  ?  They  are  the  men  who  seek  to  raise  the 
party  to  the  higher  ground.  They  are  the  men 
who  hailed  the  rising  sun  and  don't  want  to  see  the 
setting  sun  go  down  in  clouds  and  darkness.  They 
are  the  men  who  watch  the  temptations  of  the  day, 
301 


Appendix 

its  dangers,  and  set  themselves  to  maintain  the 
honour  of  party  and  country.  These  men  "  don't 
want  to  leave  the  party."  Suppose  you  were 
travelling  in  a  stage-coach  and  plunged  headlong 
down  an  embankment  into  mud  and  morass,  and 
the  driver  cries,  "  Come,  out  with  you,  out  with 
you  all,  and  help  me  put  it  back  again,"  and  every 
mother's  son  of  you  should  say,  "  No  ;  we  are  not 
going  to  leave  this  coach." 

I  should  say,  if  I  were  driver,  "  Get  the  coach 
out  of  the  mud,  and  then  get  in  again  or  go  afoot  !  ' ' 

To  elect  Mr.  Blaine  under  all  the  conditions,  un 
der  all  the  charges  and  imputations,  and  in  the 
light  of  all  his  history,  is  to  say  to  every  unprin 
cipled  man  on  this  continent,  "  No  matter  what 
your  life  has  been,  if  you  get  a  regular  nomination, 
you  are  going  to  be  in  the  Presidential  chair."  I 
shall  attend  to  what  men  say  about  teaching  our 
young  people  to  vote  for  the  morality  of  Mr.  Cleve 
land  before  I  close ;  but  I  return  the  question  to 
you  :  "  Will  you  teach  your  children  that  lying  is 
a  safe  thing,  a  mere  blemish,  a  foible  ?  "  I  tell  you 
that  truth  is  the  one  cohesive  element  that  holds 
society  together.  [Applause. ~\  I  tell  you  that 
truth  is  that  bond  which  creates  trust  between  man 
and  man,  and  to  put  a  man  smouched  with  lies  in 
the  Presidential  chair  is  to  teach  all  our  young  men 
that  lying  is  a  foible  and  not  a  sin. 

But  they  say  again,  "  We  are  not  going  to  join 
the  Democratic  party.  We  have  fought  all  our 
302 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

life  long  against  it.  We  are  not  going  to  change 
now."  Well,  we  have  not  joined  the  Democrats 
except  for  one  end,  and  that  is  to  keep  out  a  bad 
man  and  put  in  a  good  one.  [Applause '.]  Suppose 
they  do  take  the  Government.  Do  you  undertake 
to  say  that  there  are  no  good  Democrats  ?  and  that, 
too,  when  you  see  that  it  was  the  best  men  of  the 
Democratic  party  that  put  forward  Cleveland 
against  other  and  very  strong  candidates,  because 
he  was  an  honest  and  good  man?  [Applause.] 
I  tell  you  that  either  party  alone  will  not  produce 
as  good  results  as  the  best  men  of  the  two  parties 
working  together  for  a  common  purpose.  [Ap 
plause.]  If  theJDemocrats,  long  out  of  power,  do 
well,  I  want  them  to  retain  administrative  power. 
[Applause, ,]  If,  with  four  years'  power,  they  prove 
themselves  incompetent  we  will  whirl  them  out  as 
the  dust  is  whirled  from  the  threshing-floor.  [Ap 
plause.'}  I  defy  them  to  do  much  worse  than  I 
think  Elaine  will.  [Applause] 

But  there  is  another  thing  for  you  to  carry  in 
mind  and  to  interpret,  and  that  is,  what  Independ 
ent  Republicanism  means.  It  is,  as  yet,  an  unde 
veloped  third  party.  It  will  hold  the  balance  be 
tween  the  two  parties.  It  will  be  a  voice  in  every 
election,  saying  :  "  If  you  present  worthy  men 
we'll  help  you.  If  you  present  unworthy  men, 
we'll  defeat  you."  [Applause. ,]  So  degraded  has 
been  the  political  conscience,  however,  that  the  Re 
publican  leaders  pour  contempt  on  the  very  idea 
303 


Appendix 

that  there  can  be  uncorrupted  politics,  and  they 
ridicule  the  conception  that  the  Independent  Re 
publicans  have  got  any  cleaner  hands  and  any 
higher  motives  than  anybody  else.  Nevertheless 
they  will  find  out,  if  not  in  this  election  then  in  the 
next,  for  we  have  not  come  together  to  be  easily 
dissolved.  The  men  who  are  forming  the  back 
bone,  the  ribs,  the  hands,  and  the  feet  of  the  Inde 
pendent  Republicans  are  the  men  who  propose  to 
stand  by  this  work  right  through  the  years.  We 
are  the  men  who  have  such  a  pride  in  our  Govern 
ment  and  in  our  country  that  we  decree  our  lives 
to  the  maintenance  of  its  purity,  its  dignity,  and  its 
grandeur. 

The  great  ends  for  which  the  Republican  party 
was  formed  have  been  grandly  accomplished.  But 
this  very  accomplishment  lays  upon  us  new  duties 
growing  out  of  the  past.  It  is  not  for  Repub 
licans  to  sit  down  like  misers  and  count  over  our 
gains. 

Our  first  endeavour  was  to  secure  free  speech  :  we 
gained  it. 

The  right  to  attack  slavery  and  put  bounds  to  its 
spread ;  the  right  to  put  the  government  into^the 
hands  of  men  who  love  liberty  rather  than  slavery. 
We  elected  Lincoln;  we  put  him  into  the  Presi 
dential  chair. 

We  exploded  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of 
States,  though  we  affirm  the  limited  doctrine  of 
State  Rights.  The  vicious  heresy  of  the  right  of 
304 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

secession — we  put  our  foot  on  that  serpent,  and  it 
will  never  squirm  again.  For  the  maintenance  of 
the  war  we  freely  gave  our  substance  and  that 
which  is  above  all  treasure,  our  sons. 

It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that,  in  this  renowned 
war,  we  were  gallantly  helped  by  the  noblest  ele 
ment  in  the  Democratic  party.  Our  most  notable 
generals  sprung  from  that  party. 

We  have  liberated  the  slave  and  have  wiped  the 
shame  and  disgrace  of  slavery  from  off  our  es 
cutcheon. 

We  have  passed  through  the  clouded  and  difficult 
work  of  Reconstruction,  and  the  States  are  knit  to 
gether  and  are  working  in  good  neighbourhood  and 
harmony.  We  have  well-nigh  paid  the  six  thou 
sand  million  debt  ^entailed  by  the  war,  we  have 
brought  back  the  currency  to  a  specie  basis,  and 
driven  the  greenback  heresy  to  the  wilderness. 

All  these  questions  have  been  settled  so  thor 
oughly  that  they  have  drifted  beyond  the  horizon 
and  out  of  party  discussions.  The  old  Republican 
and  the  old  Democratic  parties  are  now  so  nearly 
agreed  that  their  two  platforms  are  almost  identical. 
Platforms  no  longer  mean  principles — policies  that 
run  down  to  the  foundations  of  government.  Plat 
forms  to-day  are  mere  policies  for  to-day,  and  the 
Republican  and  the  Democratic  platforms  might 
almost  be  swapped  without  either  party  perceiving 
the  difference. 

God  calls  us  now  to  turn  our  face  to  the  future. 
305 


Appendix 

What  is  the  business  of  to-day?  What  are  the 
great  questions  of  the  near  future  ? 

First  and  most  immediate,  is  Civil  Service  Re 
form,  which  in  his  sleeve  Elaine  laughs  at ;  next, 
the  limitations  of  great  monopolies ;  the  dangerous 
power  of  aggregated  capital ;  a  lawful  control  of 
the  combined  railroads;  a  vigorous  sympathy  and 
rigorous  watchfulness  of  the  rights  of  the  common 
people,  who  gain  their  livelihood  by  labour ;  free" 
dom  of  commerce,  as  the  last  link  in  the  slowly- 
forged  chain  of  freedom;  liberty  of  thought,  of 
conscience,  of  speech,  of  motion  and  action,  and 
liberty  of  commerce — the  liberty  of  men  to  come 
and  go,  for  traffic,  over  the  wide  earth. 

The  education  of  all  the  people,  at  public  ex 
pense,  by  the  Federal  government  where  it  cannot 
be  adequately  done  by  the  States. 

The  rights  of  labour  as  against  combined  capital, 
and  the  defense  of  the  individual  as  against  the 
despotism  of  corporate  bodies.  The  safety  of  an 
American  citizen  at  home  and  abroad ;  peace  with 
all  the  world,  but  war  if  we  must.  No  Socialism, 
no  Communism,  no  Nihilism. 

These  are  the  questions  of  the  hour.  The  Inde 
pendent  Republicans  will  seek  to  bring  the  Old 
Republican  party  to  generous  action  upon  them. 

We    are  working    for  the   future — not  counting 

the  deeds  of  the  past.     But  it  is  said  Cleveland 

cannot  control  the  Democratic  party ;    he  will  be 

controlled   by  them.     He  will  oust  all  the  cifice- 

306 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

holders,  and  put  in  Bayard,  Thurman,  Kurd,  Car 
lisle,  Morrison,  Lamar,  and  such  like.  Well,  would 
that  not  be  a  better  cabinet  than  Dorsey,  Elkins, 
Filley,  and  a  whole  brood  more ;  would  you  not 
like  to  see  Jay  Gould  sitting  in  the  Treasury? 
\Laughter. ~\  One  man  shakes  his  head  and  says, 
"Things  are  so  mixed,  I  shall  not  vote  again." 
That  is  like  the  soldier  in  the  fierce  battle  who 
stands  with  his  gun  and  won't  fire  because  he  does 
not  know  whom  he  will  hit.  We  don't  want  any 
cowards.  It  is  a  man's  sworn  duty  to  this  Gov 
ernment  to  vote. 

If  you  vote  for  Elaine,  you  vote  for  corruption. 
If  you  vote  for  St.  John,1  you  vote  into  the  air.  If 
you  vote  for  Butler,  you  vote  into  the  mud.  If  you 
vote  for  Cleveland  \cheers\,  you  vote  for  an  honest 
man.  \_Loud cheer s.~\  I  don't  wish  to  be  one-sided. 
I  don't  deny  to  Mr.  Elaine  many  excellencies  as  a 
private  citizen.  He  is  kindly  and  impulsive.  He 
will  do  his  best  to  serve  a  friend,  if  it  does  not  in 
terfere  with  his  personal  aim.  He  loves  to  render 
personal  services  to  those  who  approach  him.  Such 
qualities  attach  men  to  him.  They  excite  enthusi 
asm  in  unreflective  people  who  do  not  stop  to  con 
sider  whether  he  is  a  good  leader.  Mr.  Elaine's 
personal  and  social  attractions  are  such  and  so 
many  that  one  cannot  but  think  that  Providence 
designed  him  to  stay  at  home. 

But  another  point: — in  all  the  history  of  poli- 
1  The  Prohibitionist  candidate. 
307 


Appendix 

tics  no  lies  so  cruel,  so  base,  so  atrocious,  have 
ever  been  set  in  motion.  The  air  is  murky  with 
shameless  stones  of  Mr.  Cleveland's  private  life. 
To  our  sorrow  and  shame  we  find  these  cocatrice's 
eggs,  brooded  and  hatched  by  rash  and  credulous 
clergymen.  They  could  not  go  to  Mr.  Cleveland 
with  honest  inquiry,  so  they  opened  their  ears  to 
the  harlot  and  the  drunkard.  They  have  sought 
by  hint,  innuendo,  irresponsible  slander,  to  poison 
the  faith  of  holy  men,  of  innocent  women,  and 
they  have  sought  to  make  backbiting  a  virtue,  and 
to  change  the  sanctuary  into  a  salacious  whispering 
gallery.  Is  it  for  our  sins,  or  for  a  trial  of  our  faith, 
that  God  has  permitted  the  plagues  of  Egypt  to  re 
visit  us  ?  The  land  swarms  with  vermin,  frogs 
slime  our  bread  troughs,  and  lice  crawl  about  our 
chambers. 

Do  timid  ministers  ever  reflect  that  the  guilt  of  a 
vice  or  a  crime  measures  the  guilt  of  him  who  charges 
them  falsely  ?  Slander  takes  on  the  guilt  of  crime 
alleged.  True  religion  does  not  creep  through 
twilight  passages,  but  is  open,  frank,  rejoicing  not 
in  iniquity,  but  rejoicing  in  the  truth,  hoping  all 
things.  These  vespertilian  saints,  whose  soft  bat's 
wings  bear  them  from  house  to  house,  and  from 
town  to  town,  in  the  service  of  Baal,  the  god  of  flies 
and  lies,  will  one  day  creep  into  the  holes  and  clefts 
of  rocks  and  hide  themselves. 

My  honoured  and  beloved  wife,  quite  unbeknown 
to  me,  cut  many  cuttings  from  the  newspapers,  some 
308 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

of  which— all  of  which — were  in  respect  to  the  life 
of  Governor  Cleveland  in  Albany.  She  sent  them  to 
him,  with  a  letter  that  will  not  be  published,  but 
that  would  be  a  gem  in  English  literature  if  it  were 
published.  \Applaus •<?.]  As  swiftly  as  the  mail 
could  return  she  received  a  letter  from  Governor 
Cleveland,  which  I  have  had  about  two  or  three 
weeks,  which  he  means  to  be  private,  and  marked 
private.  But  such  a  complexion  has  the  canvass 
taken  that  I  telegraphed  to  him  two  nights  ago  to 
ask  him  if  he  would  allow  me  to  use  my  discretion 
in  regard  to  that  letter.  His  reply  was :  "  Cer 
tainly;  if  it  is  your  judgment."  [Mr.  Beecher 
then  produced  the  letter,  which  he  read  as  follows :] 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  BEECHER  : 

"  Your  letter,  as  you  may  well  suppose,  has 
affected  me  deeply.  What  shall  I  say  to  one  who 
writes  so  like  my  mother  ?  I  say  so  like  my  mother, 
but  I  do  not  altogether  mean  that,  for  she  died  in 
the  belief  that  her  son  was  true  and  noble,  as  she 
knew  he  was  dutiful  and  kind.  I  am  shocked  and 
dumfounded  by  the  clippings  from  the  newspapers 
that  you  sent  me,  because  it  purports  to  give  what 
a  man  actually  knows,  and  not  a  mere  report,  as  the 
other  four  or  five  lies  do,  which  I  have  read  or 
heard,  about  my  life  in  Albany.  I  have  never  seen 
in  Albany  a  woman  whom  I  have  had  any  reason  to 
suspect  was  in  any  way  bad.  I  don't  know  where  any 
such  woman  lives  in  Albany.  I  have  never  been  in 
any  house  in  Albany  except  the  Executive  Mansion, 
the  Executive  Chamber,  the  First  Orange  Club 
House — twice  at  receptions  given  to  me  and  on,  I 

309 


Appendix 

think,  two  other  occasions — and  the  residences  of 
perhaps  fifteen  or  twenty  of  the  best  citizens,  to 
dine. 

"Of  course  I  have  been  to  church.  There 
never  was  a  man  who  has  worked  harder  or  more 
hours  in  a  day.  Almost  all  my  time  has  been 
spent  in  the  Executive  Chamber,  and  J  hardly 
think  there  have  been  twenty  nights  in  the  year 
and  nine  months  I  have  lived  in  Albany — unless  I 
was  out  of  town — that  I  have  left  my  work  earlier 
than  midnight  to  find  my  bed  at  the  Mansion.  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  know  how  it  is  that  such  terrible, 
wicked,  and  utterly  baseless  lies  can  be  invented. 
[Applause  and  cheers,  during  which  Mr.  Beecher 
placidly  remarked,  "Do  not  spend  your  breath; 
there  is  a  good  deal  more  coming."]  The  con 
temptible  creatures  who  coin  and  pass  these  things 
appear  to  think  that  the  affair  which  I  have  not  de 
nied  makes  me  defenseless  against  any  and  all 
slanderers. 

"As  to  my  outward  life  in  Buffalo,  the  manifes 
tation  of  confidence  and  attachment  which  was 
tendered  me  there  by  all  citizens  must  be  proof  that 
I  have  not  lived  a  disgraceful  life  in  that  city. 
And  as  to  my  life  in  Albany,  all  statements  that 
tend  to  show  that  it  has  been  other  than  laborious 
and  perfectly  correct  are  utterly  and  in  every  shape 
untrue.  [Applause, .]  I  do  not  wonder  that  your 
good  husband  is  perplexed.  I  honestly  think  I  de 
sire  his  good  opinion  more  than  any  aid  he  is  dis 
posed  to  render  me.  I  do  not  want  him  to  think 
any  better  of  me  than  I  deserve,  nor  to  be  deceived. 
Cannot  I  manage  to  see  him  and  to  tell  him  what 
I  cannot  write  ?  I  shall  be  in  New  York  Wednes 
day  and  Thursday  morning,  I  suppose,  of  next 
week.  Thursday  afternoon  and  evening  I  shall 
310 


Patriotism  Above  Party 

spend  in  Brooklyn.  Having  written  this  much  it 
occurs  to  me  that  such  a  long  letter  to  you  is  un 
necessary  and  unexpected.  It  is  the  most  i  have 
ever  written  on  the  subject  referred  to,  and  I  beg 
you  to  forgive  me  if  your  kind  and  touching  letter 
has  led  me  into  impropriety. 

"  Yours,  very  sincerely, 

"  GROVER  CLEVELAND." 

When  in  the  gloomy  night  of  my  own  suffering, 
I  sounded  every  depth  of  sorrow,  I  vowed  that  if 
God  would  bring  the  day  star  of  hope,  I  would 
never  suffer  brother,  friend,  or  neighbour  to  go  un 
friended,  should  a  like  serpent  seek  to  crush  him. 
That  oath  I  will  regard  now.  Because  I  know  the 
bitterness  of  venomous  lies,  I  will  stand  against  in 
famous  lies  that  seek  to  sting  to  death  an  upright 
man  and  magistrate.  Men  counsel  me  to  prudence 
lest  I  stir  again  my  own  griefs.  No  !  I  will  not 
be  prudent.  If  I  refuse  to  interpose  a  shield  of 
well-placed  confidence  between  Governor  Cleveland 
and  the  swarm  of  liars  that  nuzzle  in  the  mud,  or 
sling  arrows  from  ambush,  may  my  tongue  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  and  my  right  hand  forget 
its  cunning.  I  will  imitate  the  noble  example  set 
me  by  Plymouth  Church  in  the  day  of  my  own 
calamity.  They  were  not  ashamed  of  my  bonds. 
They  stood  by  me  with  God-sent  loyalty.  It  was 
a  heroic  deed.  They  have  set  my  duty  before  me, 
and  I  will  imitate  their  example. 


THE  HERBERT  SPENCER  DINNER 

[!N  1855  Herbert  Spencer  began  his  Evolutionary 
publications  with  "  Principles  of  Psychology,"  and 
in  1860  he  issued  the  prospectus  of  his  vast  "  Sys 
tem  of  Synthetic  Philosophy,"  extending  the  prin 
ciple  of  Evolution  to  most  developments  of  nature 
and  humanity.  In  1882  he  made  a  brief  visit  to 
America,  where  his  books  had  received  warm  wel 
come,  and  just  before  he  returned  to  England  a 
complimentary  dinner  was  given  him,  the  gathering 
comprising  men  of  eminence,  mostly  in  science. 
Among  them,  however,  was  Mr.  Beecher,  who  had 
been  foremost  among  clergymen  in  utilizing 
Spencer's  expositions  of  the  development  theory, 
which  had  been,  at  first  vaguely  and  later  more 
clearly,  his  own  inspiration.  He  was  to  speak, 
but  at  the  end  of  the  evening-— nearly  midnight — 
when  all  were  tired  and  ready  to  depart.  Evolu 
tion  was  not  then  accepted  as  it  is  now,  but  was 
under  suspicion  as  an  enemy  of  religion  and  the 
Bible,  and  most  pious  folk  regarded  Mr.  Beecher 
as  very  "loose"  and  "dangerous."  But  he  was 
never  afraid  to  speak  his  mind,  and  on  that  even 
ing  he  spoke  it  clearly. 

"  I  shall  never,"  wrote  Dr.  William  A.  Ham 
mond,  "forget  the  effect  which  his  ringing  words 
312 


The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner 

produced  upon  that  audience,  composed  as  it  was 
mainly  of  hard-headed  men  who  were  not  accus 
tomed  to  be  swayed  by  their  emotions.  They  rose 
to  their  feet,  waved  their  table-napkins,  and  shouted 
themselves  hoarse,  not  because  they  all  approved 
of  the  views  which  he  then  revealed  to  them,  but 
because  of  the  astounding  courage,  the  wonderful 
regard  for  the  truth  as  he  understood  it,  and  the 
almost  superhuman  honesty  by  which  he  must 
have  been  actuated." 

As  in  the  Elaine-Cleveland  speech,  the  report  is 
given  as  it  was  taken  down  at  the  time.] 

The  old  New  England  churches  used  to  have 
two  ministers  ;  one  was  considered  as  a  doctor  of 
theology,  and  the  other  a  revivalist  and  pastor. 
The  doctor  has  had  his  day,  and  you  now  have 
the  revivalist.  \Laughter J\  Paul  complained  that 
Alexander  the  coppersmith  did  him  much  harm. 
Mr.  Spencer  has  done  immense  harm.  I  don't  be 
lieve  that  there  is  an  active,  thoughtful  minister  in 
the  United  States  that  has  not  been  put  in  a  peck 
of  troubles,  and  a  great  deal  more  than  that,  by 
the  intrusion  of  Mr.  Spencer's  views,  and  the  com 
parison  of  them  with  the  old  views.  I  cannot  for 
the  life  of  me  reconcile  his  notions  with  those  of 
St.  Augustine.  I  can't  get  along  with  Calvin  and 
Spencer  both.  [Laughter."]  Sometimes  one  of 
them  is  uppermost,  and  sometimes  the  other,  and  I 
have  often  been  disposed  to  let  them  fight  it  out 
3*3 


Appendix 

themselves,  and  not  take  any  hand  in  the  scrape. 
\_Laughter. ,]  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  when 
a  man  is  driving  a  team  of  fractious  horses  that  are 
just  all  that  he  can  manage  anyhow,  he  is  not  in  a 
state  of  mind  to  discuss  questions  with  his  wife  by 
his  side,  who  is  undertaking  to  bring  up  delicate 
domestic  matters.  [Laughter.]  A  man  who  has 
a  bald-headed  deacon  watching  everything  that  he 
does,  or  a  gold-spectacled  lawyer — not  a  fat  one 
[looking  at  Mr.  Brisfow~\,  but  a  long,  lean,  lank 
one  [looking  at  Mr.  Evarls,  amid  great  laughter~\ 
— can't  afford  to  talk  Spencerism  from  the  pulpit ; 
he  has  got  to  take  care  of  himself  first,  and  he  must 
therefore  not  be  expected  to  come  in  like  an  equi 
noctial  storm  ;  he  will  rather  come  in  like  a  drizzle ; 
he  will  descend  as  the  dew.  \_Laughter. .] 

But  one  thing  is  very  certain — Mr.  Spencer  is 
coming.  Nay,  he  has  come;  he  has  come  to 
stay.  Mr.  Spencer  may  have  dyspepsia,  but  his 
books  have  no  dyspepsia.  [Applause. ]  They 
like  the  climate,  and  they  are  working  their  way 
very  steadily,  without  any  regard  to  those  dietetic 
or  nervous  or  nervine  considerations  which  he  has 
been  kind  enough  to  propose  to  us  here  to-night. 
Those  books  can  work  day  and  night  everywhere, 
all  over  the  continent,  and  never  grow  any 
thinner. 

By  the  by,  when  he  speaks  about  our  being  so 
industrious,  he  speaks  like  an  insular  gentleman. 
You  have  very  little  to  do  in  England.  You  have 
314 


The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner 

but  about  three  hundred  miles  diameter  one  way 
and  eight  hundred  the  other.  We  have  got  this 
whole  continent  to  take  care  of.  [Laughter."] 
We  have  to  get  up  early  and  work  late  in  order  to 
take  care  of  it.  We  are  an  ambitious  people,  and 
we  have  learned  from  astronomers  that  they  are 
five  hours  ahead  of  us  every  day  in  England,  and 
we  have  to  work  with  all  our  might  to  make  up 
those  five  hours.  [Laughter J\  We  don't  intend 
to  be  surpassed  by  the  old  people  on  the  other 
side.  We  young  people  on  this  side  intend  to  do 
as  well  as  they  have  done  and  a  little  better. 

Now  let  me  say,  with  a  little  more  approach  to 
sobriety  \laughter\>  what  I  think  about  the  doc 
trines  of  Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy.  Not  all  his  ad 
mirers  or  debtors  or  disciples  need  adopt  his  con 
clusions  fully.  We  may  deem  his  base  line  to  be 
correct,  and  yet  not  be  surprised  if  here  and  there 
parts  of  his  vast  field  should  need  to  be  resurveyed. 
But,  speaking  in  general  terms,  I  think  that  the 
doctrine  of  Evolution  and  its  relations  to  the  work 
of  Mr.  Spencer — which  takes  in  that,  but  a  great 
deal  more  besides — to  speak  in  plain  language,  is 
going  to  revolutionize  theology  from  one  end  to  the 
other  [applause],  and  it  is  going  to  make  good 
walking  where  we  have  had  very  muddy  walking 
hitherto  ;  it  is  going  to  bridge  over  rivers  which  we 
have  had  to  wade.  There  are  many  points  in 
which  the  theology  of  the  past  did  well  enough  for 
the  past,  but  does  not  any  more  answer  the  reason- 
315 


Appendix 

able  questions  and  the  moral  considerations  that  are 
brought  to  bear  upon  it  in  our  day.  [Applause.] 
We  are  to  bear  in  mind  in  regard  to  the  Scriptures, 
the  great  source  of  instruction  on  the  part  of  the 
organized  religions  of  the  Christian  world,  that  we 
have  there  what  we  all  agree  in.  Some  points 
have  already  been  made  in  regard  to  it.  Paul 
speaks  of  his  idea  of  what  the  whole  drift  of  Chris 
tianity  was.  It  was  a  system  to  make  men.  That 
is  what  it  was.  He  said,  To  some  He  gave  apostles 
and  prophets,  and  evangelists  and  teachers,  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints,  that  they  may  become  per 
fect  men  in  Christ,  or  upon  the  model  of  Christ 
Jesus.  The  New  Testament  idea  is  that  religion  is 
the  art  of  putting  men  on  to  an  anvf  and  hammer 
ing  them  out  into  perfect  manhood.  Now  there 
is?  no  difference  between  that  tendency  in  the 
Scriptures  on  that  subject  and  in  Mr.  Spencer's 
work  or  Mr.  Darwin's,  or  any  other  of  that  galaxy 
of  eminent  writers  that  shine  in  the  East. 

Then,  on  the  other  hand,  taking  that  for  the 
ideal,  that  the  whole  business  of  religion  is  not 
merely  to  insure  a  man  against  fire  in  the  other 
world,  but  to  create  an  insurable  interest  in  him 
\laughter\,  the  business  before  men  is  the  making 
of  themselves  while  they  are  making  also  the  world 
in  which  they  dwell,  building  up  society,  bringing 
that  day  when  the  very  wilderness  shall  bud  and 
blossom  as  the  rose ;  making  manhood  ethics,  in 
short,  of  the  building  kind.  And  in  that  regard 

316 


The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner 

the  morality  which  is  taught  in  Mr.  Spencer's  work 
is  entirely  in  agreement  with  the  great  morality  that 
is  taught  in  the  sacred  Scriptures. 

Men  forget  that  the  Scripture  itself — and  it  ought 
to  have  dawned  on  the  minds  of  the  men  who  are 
so  afraid  it  will  be  destroyed — is  itself  a  proof  of 
Evolution.  There  is  no  fact  more  absolutely 
patent  than  that  every  moral  idea  from  the  opening 
of  Genesis,  right  straight  through  the  period  in 
Judges  and  down  to  the  New  Testament  day — 
every  one  of  the  great  moral  ideas  rose  like  a  star, 
and  did  not  shine  like  a  sun  until  ages  had  given  it 
ascension.  \Applause.~\  The  very  conception  of 
the  divine  nature  begins  at  daylight  and  goes  on  to 
sunrise  and  ^o  meridian  brightness ;  and  all  the 
doctrines  of  duties  and  relations  in  the  Old  Testa 
ment  are  progressive  from  the  beginning  down  ck  ar 
through  to  the  end.  The  doctrine  of  immortality 
was  not  known  in  the  Old  Testament  day.  Here 
we  have  Professor  Park,  of  Andover,  and  a  great 
many  good  and  godly  men  in  New  England,  dis 
cussing  to-day  whether  a  man  who  don't  believe 
that  everybody  who  dies  impenitent  will  be  damned 
forever  and  ever — whether  he  is  fit  to  preach  the 
Gospel ;  and  yet  for  more  than  five  thousand  years 
there  was  not  a  man  living  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
that  knew  there  even  was  a  future.  \Applause. ~\ 
We  have  the  implicit  declaration  in  the  New  Testa 
ment  that  life  and  immortality  were  brought  to  light 
by  Jesus  Christ.  For  more  than  five  thousand 
317 


Appendix 

years  men  did  not  know  anything  fit  to  preach,  ac 
cording  to  the  modern  notion. 

But  look  at  the  great  question  of  the  origin  of 
men.  It  is  a  hypothesis  that  we  are  but  the  pro 
longation  of  an  inferior  animal  tribe,  and  there  are 
many  evidences  among  men  that  it  is  so.  [Laugh 
ter.]  I  can  almost  trace  the  very  lines  on  which 
some  men  have  come  down.  [Laughter.  ]  It  is 
said  that  we  descend  from  the  immortal  monkey ; 
but  that  is  not  the  truth  that  is  taught,  as  I  under 
stand  it,  in  the  books.  You  have  got  to  go  a 
great  way  further  back  than  that  to  find  your 
grandfather.  Apes  came  down  from  the  same 
starting-point  with  us,  working  towards  bone  and 
muscle,  and  men  came  down  on  the  other  side, 
working  towards  nerve  and  brain.  A  great  many 
people  are  loath  to  think  that  such  an  origin  should 
be  hinted  at  by  science,  that  it  should  stand  even 
as  a  hypothesis.  I  would  just  as  lief  have  de 
scended  from  a  monkey  as  from  anything  else  if  I 
had  descended  far  enough.  \LaughterJ\  But  let 
men  have  come  from  where  they  will,  or  how  they 
may  have  come,  one  thing  is  very  certain,  that  the 
human  race  began  at  the  bottom  and  not  at  the 
top,  or  else  there  is  no  truth  in  history  or  religion  ; 
and  that  the  unfolding  of  the  human  race  has 
been  going  on,  if  not  from  the  absolute  animal 
conditions,  yet  from  the  lowest  possible  savage 
conditions ;  and  the  Jewish  legend  that  men  were 
at  the  top,  and  then  fell  from  the  top  to  the  bottom, 

318 


The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner 

and  carried  down  all  their  posterity  with  them, 
and  that  God's  business  has  been  for  eight,  ten, 
twenty  thousand  years,  and  how  many  more  I 
know  not,  the  punishing  of  men  for  sins  they 
never  committed — well,  that  has  got  to  go.  [Ap 
plause."]  It  will  not  be  twenty  years  before  a  man 
will  be  ashamed  to  stand  up  in  any  intelligent 
pulpit  and  mention  it.  [Applause."} 

On  the  other  hand,  see  what  light  is  thrown 
upon  Divine  Providence.  According  to  the  old 
theology,  one  single  person  was  sorted  out,  an 
emigrant,  and  the  whole  of  the  divine  thought 
was  centred  on  him  and  on  his  posterity,  and  all 
the  collateral  races  of  every  kind  were  left  without 
a  temple,  without  a  book,  without  a  priest,  without 
a  Sabbath,  without  a  sacrifice,  without  an  altar, 
without  anything,  while  he  brought  up  one  single 
family;  and  what  a  family!  [Laughter.]  And 
what  bringing  up  !  [Laughter. ,]  What  a  means 
of  grace  it  was  to  have  had  those  twelve  patri 
archs  !  In  modern  society  those  men  could  not 
have  lived,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  one  or 
two  of  them ;  they  could  not  have  lived  outside  of 
Sing  Sing — unless  they  went  into  politics.  [Laugh 
ter.'}  They  went  down  to  Egypt  and  there  they 
were  abandoned  to  slavery  for  four  hundred  years. 
What  was  done  for  them  ?  Nothing.  They  came 
out  of  Egypt,  and,  passing  forty  years  through  the 
wilderness,  came  into  the  eastern  line  of  Palestine 
and  took  possession,  by  the  sword,  of  the  land, 
319 


Appendix 

slaughtering  the  inhabitants,  and  for  four  hundred 
years  there  was  an  interregnum  again,  until  we 
come  down  to  the  time  of  Samuel,  and  even  after 
that  there  is  no  continuity  of  organized  govern 
ment.  The  hiatus  between  one  period  and  another, 
the  interregnum  periods,  when  you  come  to  put 
them  together,  negative  the  current  and  conven 
tional  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  special 
tutelary  administration  of  God  over  a  chosen 
people,  relieving  them  from  the  operation  of  the 
laws  of  social  progress.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
you  come  to  look  at  the  actual  facts  and  take  the 
whole  human  family,  they  have  been  steadily  and 
gradually  unfolding,  some  with  greater  rapidity 
and  some  less.  Some  were  more  capable  of 
thought  than  others ;  some  were  stronger  in  hand 
and  tarried  by  the  way  to  fight ;  but  on  the  whole 
the  world  has  been,  with  unequal  speed,  advancing 
from  the  earliest  period  down  to  the  present  time. 
This  is  a  great  deal  more  consonant  with  any 
rational  idea  of  an  overruling  Providence  and  a 
divine  justice  than  the  ideas  of  the  old  theologies. 

Then  comes  the  question  of  sin.  I  am  taught 
by  Augustine  and  Calvin,  and  all  of  the  mediaeval 
preachers,  that  there  are  two  sorts  of  sin :  one  is 
"original  sin" — I  have  always  been  original 
enough  to  have  my  own  sin  [laughter] — but  that 
we  are  all  under  conditions  of  guilt,  wrath,  and 
penalty,  on  account  of  the  transgression  of  Adam 
and  Eve,  nobody  knows  how  many  thousand  years 
320 


The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner 

ago;  that  the  guilt  of  their  inexperience — their 
transaction  in  the  garden  of  Eden — ran  clear  down 
through  the  thousands  of  years,  and  included 
every  child  that  was  born  from  that  time  to  this. 
Now  what  is  the  theory  that  comes  on  the  other 
hand,  on  the  side  of  science?  It  is  the  theory 
that  man  is  first  an  animal  pure  and  simple ;  that 
by  the  breathing  of  the  breath  of  God  into  him 
there  is  the  unfolding  gradually  of  a  rational  soul, 
an  intellectual  capacity,  a  moral  and  a  spiritual 
nature ;  that  while  he  was  an  animal  the  exercise 
of  selfishness,  of  plunder,  of  combativeness  and 
destructiveness,  was  the  law  of  his  being, — it  was 
not  only  a  necessity,  but  the  act  was  a  virtue ;  yet 
by  gradual  development  he  has  come  to  the  posses 
sion  of  those  higher  qualities  which  should  rule 
him.  Sin  lies  in  the  conflict  between  animal 
nature  and  the  dawning  of  spiritual,  moral  and 
intellectual  nature.  It  is  the  conflict  in  a  man 
between  his  upper  and  lower  nature. 

If  you  want  to  see  that  taught  thoroughly,  go  to 
the  seventh  of  Romans  and  see  how  Paul  argues 
the  matter.  He  says :  "  The  things  I  would  do, 
I  do  not ;  the  things  I  would  not  do,  I  do.  So 
then,  it  is  not  I,"  he  says,  "but  sin  that  dwelleth 
in  me.  I  find  a  law  in  my  members."  (He  was 
almost  fit  to  be  a  minister  to  Darwin  !)  "I  find 
a  law  in  my  members  that  compels  me  to  sin,  but 
that  I  in  which  my  personal  identity  is,  the  I  that 
thinks,  the  I  that  perceives,  that  aspires,  the  flash 
321 


Appendix 

of  imagination  (which  he  calls  faith),  the  whole 
fruition  of  a  great  soul  that  approves  the  spiritual 
law,  the  manly  law — whatever  is  right,  pure,  just, 
beautiful — I  see  that,  but  I  am  all  the  time  doing 
the  other.  My  under  man,  my  physical  man,  is 
fighting  against  the  upper  man." 

There  isn't  a  man  here  but  knows  that  that  is  so. 
Every  evening  rebukes  every  morning  among  the 
whole  of  you.  You  go  out  in  the  morning  with  in 
spiration  and  noble  feeling,  and  say,  "  This  day  I 
will  cheat  nobody,"  and  you  come  back  at  night 
and  you  have  cheated  a  dozen  men.  [Laughter.] 
And  so  on  through  the  whole  scale  of  conduct. 
Great  light  is  thrown,  by  this  truly  scientific  and 
truly  spiritual  view,  on  the  subject  of  the  nature  of 
sin.  I  might  go  on  and  show  that  in  many  other 
ways  religious  teaching  is  largely  benefited  by  the 
light  coming  from  the  great  thinkers  of  the  day. 

Now  men  say,  Will  you  abandon  revelation  ? 
No.  We  all  believe,  who  believe  in  Moses,  that 
God  wrote  on  stone.  I  believe  that  that  was  not 
the  first  time  he  wrote  on  stone.  He  made  a  rec 
ord  when  he  made  the  granite,  and  when  he  made 
all  the  successive  strata  in  the  periods  of  time. 
There  is  a  record  in  geology  that  is  as  much  a 
record  of  God  as  the  record  on  paper  in  human 
language.  [Applause."}  They  are  both  true — 
where  they  are  true.  [Laughter."}  The  record  of 
matter  very  often  is  misinterpreted,  and  the  record 
of  the  letter  is  often  misinterpreted ;  and  you  are  to 
322 


The  Herbert  Spencer  Dinner 

enlighten  yourselves  by  knowing  both  of  them  and 
interpreting  them  one  by  the  other.  It  is  no  more 
a  quarrel  between  science  and  religion,  than  a  dis 
cussion  over  family  matters  is  a  quarrel  between  the 
husband  and  wife ;  it  is  simply  a  thorough  adjust 
ment  of  affairs.  [Laughter.  ] 

Gentlemen,  we  have  had  a  good  time  here  to 
night,  too  much  of  it,  especially  for  a  man  like  me 
that  can't  eat  because  he  has  a  speech  to  make. 
We  shall  very  soon  break  up.  It  is  not  our  privi 
lege  to  meet  Mr.  Spencer  face  to  face  as  we  all 
would  be  glad  to  do;  I  certainly  would.  I  don't 
know  of  a  man  living,  with  whom,  if  I  might  sit 
down  in  the  shade  of  the  evening,  in  quiet,  and 
bring  up  my  crude  thought,  my  vagrant  imagination, 
and  avail  myself  of  his  superior  experience  and 
thought — I  know  of  no  man  now  living  with  whom 
I  should  feel  more  honoured  and  more  pleased  in 
communing  than  with  him.  It  is  not  in  my  nature 
to  derive  benefit  from  any  mortal  soul  and  forget 
the  obligation.  I  feel  in  my  pulse  a  longing  that 
goes  back  to  the  early  days,  to  Homer,  and  comes 
down  through  the  whole  catalogue  of  noble  writers 
who  have  written  that  which  the  world  thought 
worth  preserving ;  and  every  man  that  comes  up 
in  our  day,  and  whose  writings  fortify  me  and 
strengthen  me — I  would  fain  carry  some  tribute  of 
affection  to  him.  I  began  to  read  Mr.  Spencer's 
works  more  than  twenty  years  ago.  They  have 
been  meat  and  bread  to  me.  They  have  helped 
323 


Appendix 

me  through  a  great  many  difficulties.  I  desire  to 
own  my  obligation  personally  to  him,  and  to  say 
that  if  I  had  the  fortune  of  a  millionaire,  and  I 
should  pour  all  my  gold  at  his  feet,  it  would  be  no 
sort  of  compensation  compared  to  that  which  I  be 
lieve  I  owe  him  ;  for  whoever  gives  me  a  thought 
that  dispels  the  darkness  that  hangs  over  the  most 
precious  secrets  of  life,  whoever  gives  me  confi 
dence  in  the  destiny  of  my  fellow  men,  whoever 
gives  me  a  clearer  standpoint  from  which  I  can 
look  to  the  great  silent  One,  and  hear  Him  even  in 
half,  and  believe  in  Him,  not  by  the  tests  of  phys 
ical  science,  but  by  moral  intuition — whoever  gives 
that  power  is  more  to  me  than  even  my  father  and 
my  mother  \  they  gave  me  an  outward  and  a  phys 
ical  life,  but  these  others  emancipate  that  life  from 
superstition,  from  fears,  and  from  thralls,  and  make 
me  a  citizen  of  the  universe.  [Applause.] 

May  He  who  holds  the  storm  in  His  hand  be 
gracious  to  you,  sir ;  may  your  voyage  across  the 
sea  be  prosperous  and  speedy ;  may  you  find  on  the 
other  side  all  those  conditions  of  health  and  of  com 
fort  which  shall  enable  you  to  complete  the  great 
work,  greater  than  any  other  man  in  this  age  has 
ever  attempted  :  may  you  live  to  hear  from  this 
continent  and  from  that  other,  an  unbroken  testi 
mony  to  the  service  which  you  have  done  to  hu 
manity  ;  and  thus,  if  you  are  not  outwardly  crowned, 
you  wear  an  invisible  crown  on  your  head  that  will 
carry  comfort  to  death — and  I  will  greet  you  beyond  1 
324 


Index 


ABOLITION  AND  ANTI-SLA 
VERY,  a  distinction,  214; 
both  ostracized  in  North, 
215-216 

Adam  and  Eve,  320 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  195, 
197 

After-dinner  speaking  usu 
ally  dull,  135 

Alexander,  the  coppersmith, 

313 

Alexander  the  Great,  255 
America,  in  1620,  16 ;  no 
place  for  European  dema 
gogues,  102  ;  stimulating 
influences  in, — climate, 
hope,  business  ambition, 
politics,  religious  excite 
ment,  common  schools, 

!°£-ii5 

Armies,  disbandment  of  the, 

251 

Army  of  the  Potomac,  249, 
251 

Art,  hated  by  Puritans, 
serving  oppression  in 
Church  and  State,  33 ; 
Italian,  churchly  and 
classic,  never  democratic, 
34 ;  Germanic,  popular 
and  domestic ;  English, 
aristocratic,  35 

Augustine,  St.,  320 

Austin,  U.  S.  District  At 
torney,  223 

BAYARD,  THOMAS  F.,  307 
Beecher,  H.  W.,  Foreword 
by   N.    D.    Hillis,    5-9; 


entered  public  life,  189 ; 
college  speech  on  Coloni. 
zation,  209 ;  advised  to 
silence  on  slavery,  219; 
speaks  in  Blaine- Cleve 
land  presidential  cam 
paign,  Appendix,  note, 
284 ;  speaks  at  Spencer 
dinner,  Appendix,  note, 
312 

Beecher,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  letter 
to,  from  Grover  Cleve 
land,  309 

Beecher,  Lyman,  and  Wm. 
E.  Channing,  159 

Bismarck,  255 

Black  list,  the,  218 

Blaine,  James  G.,  Appendix 
I,  passim,  284-311 

Bonner's  N.  K  Ledger,  200 

Book  and  newspaper  cannot 
replace  orator,  153 

Bowen,  Henry  C.,  227 

Bnstow,  N.  Y.  lawyer,  314 

Brown,  John,  225 

Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  307 

CAESAR,  JULIUS,  255 
Calvin,  John,  denies  liberty 

of  speech,  24 ;  a   radical 

for  freedom   in  his  time, 

167  ;  on  sin,  320 
Calvinism  would  be  scourged 

by    Calvin    to-day,    167 ; 

original  value  of,  168 
Carlisle,  John  G.,  307 
Cavour,  256 
Channing,   William    Ellery, 

Chapter  V,    157-182;    a 


325 


Index 


mouthpiece  of  his  time, 
158;  and  Lyman  Beecher, 
159;  sectarianism  modi 
fied,  163—164 ;  aids  in 
changing  view  of  God, 
165-169;  since,  religion 
advanced,  170-175  ;  a 
godly  man,  light  in  dark 
ness,  179-180;  testified 
against  slavery,  222-223 

Choate,  Rufus,  199 

Chronology,  94 

Cicero,   151 

Civil  liberty  of  individual, 
27-29 

Civil  Service  Reform,  296, 
306 

Civil  War,  the,  North  and 
South,  242-243;  survey 
of  forces  in,  244-246 ; 
death  and  disease  in,  249- 
250 

Cleveland,  Grover,  Appen 
dix  I,  passim,  284-311 

Common  people,  Reign  of 
the,  Chapter  111,94-127  ; 
education  of,  62-64,  96- 
105 ;  intelligence  of,  af 
fecting  science,  religion, 
government,  120-125 

Connecticut,  13 

Constitution,  compromises 
of,  213 

Conversation  a  realm  of 
oratory,  135 

DARWIN,  CHARLES,  65,  320 
Davis,  Judge,  297-298 
Death,  sudden,  270 
Delaware,  14 
Democratic     party    in     the 

War,  242 
Demosthenes,  151 


Despotism  concentres,  lib 
erty  diffuses,  24 

Dorsey,  Republican  worker, 
290,  307 

Douglass,  Frederick,  221 

Drunkenness,  social  bur 
den,  84-86 

Dudley,  Pension  Commis 
sioner,  290 


EDUCATION  of  common  peo 
ple,  62-64,  96-105 

Egypt,  education  in,  96 

Elkins,  Senator,  307 

Eloquence  and  Oratory, 
Chapter  IV,  128-156; 
valuable  for  spread  of 
learning,  knowledge,  and 
right  motive,  130,  131  ; 
largely  ignored  by  pulpit, 
platform  and  bar,  133, 
134;  requisites — training 
of  whole  body  for  ex 
pression  of  great  thoughts, 
138-150;  examples,  151  ; 
compared  with  books  and 
press,  153;  is  the  living 
power  of  man  on  man, 

'55  . 
Emancipation      in      North, 

211-213 
Emerson,      Ralph      Waldo, 

194,  198 

England,  183,  288 
Episcopal  Church,  the,  177- 

I78 

Europe  an  armed  camp,  89 
Evarts,  Wm.  M.,  314 
Everett,  Edward,  199 
Evolution    and    the    Bible, 

3*7 

Excitements  classified,  65 


326 


Index 


FANEUIL  HALL,  223 
Fillmore,  Millard,  197 
Five  Forks,  253 
France,  183,  288 
Frederick  the  Great,  255 
Freedom,  method  of  growth, 

24 
Free    speech,    in    sixteenth 

and  nineteenth  centuries, 

23-26 

Free  trade,  66 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  191 


GARFIELD,  JAMES  R.,  293- 
294 

Garrison,  Wm.  Lloyd,  193  ; 
and  Phillips,  224-226 

German  battle- legend,  41 

Gettysburg,  89,  249 

Giddings,  Joshua,  195 

Gould,  Jay,  307 

Government  or  the  People  ? 
28-30 

Graham  Institute,  226 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  Chapter 
VIII,  234-266;  elements 
of  greatness,  235  ;  early 
life  of,  236 ;  unsuccessful 
middle  life,  237-238 ; 
success  in  the  war — Don- 
elson  and  Henry,  243 ; 
qualities  in  war  and  peace, 
246-248 ;  friends  with  sub 
ordinates,  252;  magnani 
mous  in  victory,  253-254 ; 
presidency  of,  256-258 ; 
private  life — travel,  bank 
ruptcy,  biography — death, 
259-262 

Greece,  education  in,  97 

Greek  Church,  67 

Greeley,  Horace,  195,  299 


Guyot,  Professor,  on  plant 
growth,  91 

HALE,  JOHN  P.,  195 
Hall,  Wm.  A.,  226 
Hammond,  Dr.  Wm.  A.,  312 
Henry,  Patrick,  150 
Henry  and  Donelson,  243 
Hillis,  N.  D.,  Foreword,  5-9 
Holland,  183 
Homer,  323 

ICONOCLASM  OF  PURITANS, 
revolt  against  superstition 
and  oppression,  31-36 

Ignorance,  social  waste,  60- 
64 

Independent  Republicans, 
285,  301,  303 

Independents  assert  free 
conscience  in  one's  own 
sect,  27 

ACKSON,  slave-helper,  194 
ohnson,  Andrew,  254 
ohnston,  Joseph,  253 
omini,  248 

oy,  friend  of  Blaine,  292 
ustice,  theological  idea  of, 
improved,  169 

KANSAS,  192 

Knox,  John,  claims  free 
speech  in  Romanism;  de 
nies  it  in  Protestantism,  24 

LAMAR,  SENATOR,  307 
Leavitt,  Joshua,  194 
Lee,  Robert  E.,  246 
Legislators,  115-117 
Liberty,  seeds  of,  from  Eng 
land   and  Holland,   183. 


327 


Index 


joined    with     slavery    in 
United  States,  185 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  195,  214; 
Chapter    IX,    263-283; 
Moses  and,  263-265  ;  ret 
rospect,    266-267 ;    death 
of,   and   effect,    268-269; 
sudden  death,  270;  killed 
by    slavery,     273 ;     blow 
aimed  at  nation,  276—278 ; 
Republic  strengthened, 
279-280 ;     Lincoln's     in 
fluence    in    death,    282; 
apostrophe,  283 
Longfellow,  H.  W.,  194,  198 
Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  222 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  194 
Luther,  Martin,  23,  24 
Lying,  social  waste,  76-83 

MAINE,  13,  211 

Maryland,  14,  25 1 

Massachusetts,  13 ;  demo 
cratic  aristocrats  of,  198; 
emancipation  in,  211 

May,  Samuel  J.,  194 

Mazarin,  38 

Methodist  churches,  1 1 1 

Michael  Angelo,  151 

Middle  ages,  education  in,  99 

Misfits  of  men,  social  waste, 

71-75. 

Missouri  Compromise,  192 
Moody  and  Sankey,  in 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  22 
Morrison  of  Texas,  307 
Moses,  263 
Mount  Vernon,  14 

NAPIER,  historian,  n,  253 
Napoleon,  248,  255 
New  England,  blood  of,  in 
America,  12 


New  Hampshire,  13 

New  Jersey,  14;  prayer-book 
in,  217-218 

New  York,  13;  emancipa 
tion  in,  211 

Nihilism  in  Russia,  in  Amer 
ica,  102 

North,  the,  corrupted  by  sla 
very,  187-189,  213-218 

OATHS  worthless — official, 
80;  ecclesiastical,  82 

Oratorical  training  to  pro 
duce  automatic  action,  147 

Oratory,  definition  of,  136; 
qualities  requisite  for,  138 
[See  Eloquence] 

PARASITES,    social    burden, 

55-59  . 

Patriotism  above  Party 
(Appendix  I),  campaign 
speech,  October,  1884,  on 
James  G.  Elaine  and 
Grover  Cleveland  as  can 
didates  for  Presidency, 
284-311 

Paul,  the  Apostle,  98,  313, 
321 

Peace  advancing,  90 

Pennsylvania,  14 

Phillips,  Wendell,  193; 
Chapter  VII,  208-233; 
first  public  appearance, 
221-224;  Garrison  and, 
224-226 ;  in  Plymouth 
Church,  226-229 ;  prin 
ciples  and  oratory  of,  229- 
230;  lesson  of  his  fame, 
231-232 

Pickens,  Governor,  of  South 
Carolina,  278 


328 


Index 


Pilgrims,  the,  descendants 
of,  in  England,  12;  land 
ing  of  celebrated,  11-15; 
characteristics  of,  18;  rea 
sons  of,  for  migrating,  22 ; 
common  sense  and  fidelity 
to  conviction  their  great 
ness,  23;  England  now 
honours  their  work,  38 

Pine  tree,  symbol  of  Liberty, 

37,38 
Plymouth  Church,  219-221, 

3" 

Plymouth  Rock,  II,  14 
Potato,  the,  misjudged,  175 
Presbyterian  Church,  New- 
school,  194 

Providence,  belief  in,  126 
Puritans,  the,  mostly  yeo 
men,  22 ;  prophet  of  com 
mon  people,  30;  accused 
of  zeal  against  trifles,  31 ; 
ascetic  prejudices,  32 ;  des 
ecration  of  art,  33-36 
Puritanism,  Chapter  I,  n; 
creed  of,  I,  religious  free 
dom,  II,  civil  liberty,  26- 
29;  England  freed  by,  35  ; 
European  nations  refus- 
ingj,  in  dotage,  38 

QUARRELSOMENESS,     social 

waste,  65-70 
Quincy  family,  198 

RAPHAEL,  151 

Reformation,  the,  19-21 ; 
leaders  of,  inconsistent, 
23 ;  stimulating  intelli 
gence,  100 

Religion,  of  forms,  de 
creased — of  heart,  in 


creased,  170-175 ;  is  itself 
its  best  statement,  176 

Religious  freedom  of  indi 
vidual,  27,  28 ;  systems 
foes  of  peace,  67 

Representative     democracy, 

"5 

Republican  party,  Appen 
dix  I,  passim ,  284-311 

Rhode  Island,  13 

Richelieu,  38 

Richmond,  253 

Robes  and  vestments  sym 
bolic,  31 

Rogers,  abolitionist,  194 

Roman  Catholic  Church,  67, 
177 

Rotation  in  office,  295 

Russia,  288 

ST.  JOHN,  Prohibitionist  can 
didate  for  Presidency,  307 

Salvation  Army,  in 

Scheffer,  Ary,  218 

Sects  improving,  70;  im 
proved,  163 

Self-government,  115-119 

Seward,  Wm.  H.,  195 

Sheridan,   Philip,  243,  252, 

253 

Sherman,  William  T.,  243, 
252,  253 

Sickness  and  weakness, 
social  waste,  46-54 

Slade,  Governor,  of  Ohio,  195 

Slavery,  in  United  States 
Constitution,  185 ;  made 
clash  of  interests  and  cor 
ruption,  186-190;  acci 
dental  in  North,  impor 
tant  in  South,  210;  end 
of,  in  North,  211-213;  at 
titude  of  churches  towards, 


329 


Index 


216-218;  and   politics, 
240-241 

Social  unrest  due  to  grow 
ing  intelligence  of  masses, 
103 

Socialists,  nihilists,  commu 
nists  out  of  place  in  Amer 
ica,  IO2 

Society  complex,  43-45  ;  es 
timated  by  average,  60 

South,  the,  in  Civil  War,  89 ; 
corrupted  by  slavery,  1 86 ; 
not  wronged,  277 

Spencer,  Herbert,  Appen 
dix  II,  passim>  Beecher 
at  Spencer  Dinner,  312- 

324 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  195,  253 

States  celebrating  Decem 
ber  22,  1620,  13-15 

Statesmanship,  255 

Stewart,  Alvan,  195 

Storrs,  Richard  S.,  Jr.,  228 

Sumner,  Charles,  Chapter 
VI,  183-207,  195 ;  char 
acter  of,  197 ;  accomplish 
ments  of,  200 ;  fame  of, 
202;  an  unsullied  states 
man,  martyr  to  freedom, 
203-207 

Sumter,  Fort,  242 

Swedenborgian  Church,  the, 
178 


Thurman,  Allan  G.,  307 
Truth-telling,    social     cohe 
sion,  76-80 
Tweed,  Wm.  M.,  301 

UNITARIAN  CHURCH,  THE, 
178-179 

Unity,  fatal  notion  of  Ro 
manism  set  up  in  Protes 
tantism,  24 

Usurpations  of  Church  and 
Governments,  27—30 

Utopia,  22 

VANE,  SIR  HARRY,  27 
Ventilation  and  health,  49- 

54 

Vermont,  13 
Vice  taxes  virtue,  60 
Villiers,  38 
Virginia,  14 


TAPPAN,  ARTHUR  AND 
LEWIS,  194 

Theology,  the  old  from  gov 
ernmental  force,  the  new 
from  divine  fatherhood, 
124;  the  true,  makes 
noble  lives,  177 

Thomas,  George  H.,  243,  252 


WAR,    waste    and    burden, 

87-93 
Washington  City,  from  1830- 

1860,  191 

Washington,  George,  14,255 
Wastes  and  Burdens  of  So 
ciety,    Chapter    II,     43 ; 
I,  sickness  and  weakness, 
46;    2,  parasites,   55;    3, 
ignorance,  60 ;  4,  quarrel 
someness,  65  ;   5,  misfits, 
71 ;  6,  lying,  76;  7,  drunk 
enness,  84 ;  8,  war,  87 
Webster,  Daniel,  151,  199 
Weld,  Theodore,  193 
Whittier,  John  G.,  194,  199 
Woman,  rights  of,  58;  edu 
cation  of,  Greek,  97  ;  He 
braic  position  of,  97,  98; 
in  America,  99 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  Amerie* 

330 


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